Attention Tea Party and other low information voters,  if you're going to call the President of the United States a communist on national TV, you should probably know what a communist is and have a second sentence ready to back that claim up.

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Jon Husted claims a member of the proposed redistricting commission could not be removed for taking a bribe

Republican opponents of Issue 2, the proposed redistricting reform plan, have started to question the rules that would govern the new citizens committee that would handle redistricting should voters approve the measure on Nov. 6.

Secretary of State Jon Husted underscored these concerns when he recently described to reporters a startling hypothetical situation involving a commission member.

"Apparently, you could accept a bribe from somebody to get the map that you want, and you couldn't be removed from this commission," Husted, a Republican and outspoken critic of Issue 2, told reporters after the Aug. 15 meeting of the Ohio Ballot Board to determine ballot language for Issue 2.

Is Husted right? Issue 2, after all, is billed as an attempt to remove political influence from the redistricting process.

PolitiFact Ohio checked into Husted's statement.

Mitt Romney says up to 20 million will lose health insurance due to Obama health care law

During the first presidential debate in Denver, Mitt Romney criticized President Barack Obama's health care law by saying, "Right now, the (Congressional Budget Office) says up to 20 million people will lose their insurance as Obamacare goes into effect next year."

While PolitiFact does not put predictions to the Truth-O-Meter, we do fact-check whether politicians or pundits accurately portray the predictions made by others.

We did so in June, when Romney made a similar claim in a speech -- that "Obamacare ... means that for up to 20 million Americans, they will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like and they want to keep." We rated that claim False.

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel says U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown has sent billions of our tax dollars to foreign countries

Federal spending is a major issue in the U.S. Senate campaign of Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, the Republican trying to unseat incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown. Mandel says spending is wasteful and unsustainable, and he names Brown as a reason.

Among several claims in Mandel's TV ad "Change," which accuses Brown of trying to hide his record, is one that says "Brown sent billions of our tax dollars to foreign countries."

The ad claims Brown sent billions of dollars to foreign countries. The information that the ad uses to back up that claim, that Brown voted for the stimulus bill, has been proven false. Brown did not make decisions on how that money would be spent, and he was one of the senators who called for its suspension after the foreign grants were reported.

When confronted with those facts, the Mandel campaign offered as support for its claim that Brown votes for appropriations for U.S. foreign operations. That's the money for embassies, war-related spending to help establish new governments and the U.S. portions of international missions. That's a ridiculous stretch from what the ad implies, which is that Brown tried to hide that he irresponsibly sent billions or our tax dollars to foreign countries.

We have a rating for statements that are both false and ridiculous.

It's Pants on Fire.

Mitt Romney says a lawsuit filed by President Obama's campaign challenges voting privileges for the military

Toward the end of last week, websites began to make the misleading claim that the Obama campaign was suing the state of Ohio to restrict military voting, when the lawsuit actually sought to permit all Ohio voters to vote the weekend before elections, as military voters can do. On Saturday, GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney issued a statement that accused Obama of trying to undermine the rights of military voters.

"President Obama's lawsuit claiming it is unconstitutional for Ohio to allow servicemen and women extended early voting privileges during the state's early voting period is an outrage," Romney's statement said.

In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Obama campaign advisor David Axelrod disputed the way that Romney and others were characterizing the lawsuit.

"What that lawsuit calls for is not to deprive the military of the right to vote on the final weekend ," Axelrod told host Chris Wallace. "Of course, they should have that right. That suit is about whether the rest of Ohio should have the same right. And I think it's shameful that Governor Romney would hide behind our servicemen and women to try and win a lawsuit to deprive other Ohioans. . . of the right to vote."

Democrats lined up their own military members to protest how some were describing the lawsuit.

Former Democratic congressman John Boccieri of Alliance,  a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Air Force Reserves,  issued a statement that accused Republicans of distortion.

"This is about restoring equal and fair access to early voting and in no way asks for restrictions to voting," Boccieri said. "Anything said otherwise is completely false. Period. And as a member of the American Legion and a lifetime member of the AMVETS, I find these claims outrageous."

Indeed, Obama's lawsuit clearly states that it seeks to permit all Ohioans - not just members of the U.S. military -  to vote during the three days before the election, as was the case in 2008. The suit in no way suggests restricting early voting by members of the military.

It is simply dishonest for Romney and his backers to claim that Obama's effort to extend early voting privileges to everyone in Ohio constitutes an attack on military voters' ability to cast ballots on the weekend before elections.

We rate the claim False.

Full Story from PolitiFact Ohio

Josh Mandel Says The Affordable Care Act "Will Likely Go Down As The Biggest Tax Increase In History"

The Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act settled the question of its constitutionality, but only seemed to intensify debate over the law.

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel joined other Republicans in calling for its repeal, saying the decision "sets the stage for the November election." He identified the law as a pivotal issue in his campaign to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Mandel issued a statement on the day of the decision asserting that Brown had voted "for what will likely go down as the biggest tax increase in history."

That claim about the health care legislation has been a talking point opponents of the law, repeated many times since the ruling. But PolitiFact first examined it after Florida Gov. Rick Scott made the statement more than a year earlier.

The claim is wrong.

Read The Entire Report at PolitiFact Ohio.

When The Columbus Dispatch points out lies in a Republican's campaign, one can only assume that they are egregious.

Mandel's claims of support unproven

Republican Josh Mandel appears unable to support his oft-made claim that legions of Democrats are supporting his candidacy for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown.

The Brown campaign says that Mandel's boasts of strong Democratic support are false and not borne out in campaign-finance data, polls or even anecdotes. In fact, the Brown campaign has received stronger fundraising support from the wealthy Ratner branch of Mandel's extended family than has Mandel.

"I think he makes these statements that are pretty verifiably untrue," Brown said.

Asked by The Dispatch for evidence of the backing Mandel says he is receiving from Democratic voters and groups, the Mandel campaign offered only the names of four registered Democrats willing to comment. But one of them actually is an independent who says she has supported candidates from both parties.

Read the whole story and find out another reason why Josh Mandel is a politician we can't trust.

COLUMBUS, OHIO - Refusing to come clean with Ohioans over when he first learned of the FBI investigation that shamed him into returning $105k in shady campaign cash, Josh Mandel recently launched a new attack ad attempting to change the subject away from his latest scandal.

But Mandel's new ad was consistent with his candidacy-it can't be trusted. In case you missed any of the numerous fact checks that looked into Mandel's latest ad full of lies, here's a quick roundup of the pieces that found his ad to be "deceptive," "bogus," "phony," "extremely misleading," "using other highly selective facts," and just flat out "false."

Says Sen. Sherrod Brown "cast the deciding vote on the government takeover of health care."

Brown's vote was actually the seventh "yes" among the 60 senators who supported a Senate bill that had to be reconciled with a House version on Christmas Eve 2009. His vote was cast early in the roll call, which is done in alphabetical order. When the two sides came together and the Senate voted on the final version, on March 25, 2010, Brown voted eighth.

Both measures passed with exactly 60 votes. Brown's vote was crucial. Following the rationale of the Mandel camp and of the NRSC, any of those 60 votes could be called a deciding vote. But Brown did nothing (such as holding his support until the last moment) that would justify singling him out.

What about the other part of the claim, where Mandel's ad refers to the health care act as "the government takeover of health care"? Mandel's ad repeats a claim that has been reviewed numerous times by PolitiFact and rated False or Pants on Fire.

PolitiFact national recognized it as the 2010 "Lie of the Year." FactCheck.org called it "nonsensical" and a "whopper," saying the reform plan is neither "government-run" nor a "government takeover." The Washington Post Fact Checker classified it as myth.

In a blistering speech Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will continue the GOP's attack on President Obama for saying on Monday that the Supreme Court would be taking an extraordinary step by overturning his health care law.

"Respectfully, I would suggest the president back off," McConnell will say. "Let the court do its work. Let our system work the way it was intended. The stability of our system and our laws and our very government depends on it. And the duties of the presidency demand it."

There's a revealing irony to all this. Republicans have turned attacking the judiciary into a political sport over the years -- citing adverse rulings as evidence that activists judges are legislating from the bench.

So, what did the last President have to say about "Activist Judges"?

Watch It:

Maurice Thompson, chief of 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, says unemployment in Ohio "is significantly higher than the unemployment rate in states which are not forced union states and it's always been that way."

Just days after a two-to-one margin of victory for a "health care freedom" amendment to Ohio's constitution on the November ballot, the band of Tea Party activists and other conservatives behind that initiative announced a new amendment they would seek.

Next up would be a petition drive to get a new issue on the ballot that the group describes as a "workplace freedom amendment," but which is usually called a right-to-work issue.  

This proposed amendment would forbid forcing a person to join a union as a condition of employment, and it is similar to a proposed amendment that was stomped at the ballot by Ohio voters in 1958.

PolitiFact:

Boehner said, "Over half of the people who would be taxed under this plan are, in fact, small businesspeople."

Boehner is wrong on two points -- the "half" and the "small businesspeople."

Of the business income reported on tax returns, half of it would have been taxed at the top two rates, the Joint Committee on Taxation found. But that doesn't mean half of the earners are paying those rates.

And it's incorrect to call small business owners and millionaires who would see a tax increase one and the same. The Joint Committee as well as the Tax Policy Center have given credible evidence that for top earners who report business income, it is often just a fraction of their total income. They are not the folks operating small manufacturing plants or neighborhood pizza parlors. In fact, only 0.5 percent of small businesses make that kind of money.

More often, small businesses are small in every sense -- most have incomes of less than $50,000 and almost all have profits of less than $1 million -- and they wouldn't be affected by the millionaires tax.

We rate the statement False.

On Fox News October 20th, Ohio Governor John Kasich says -- while laughing -- that public employees get "free health care" and pay nothing into their pensions.

Nice try, Guv. On average, county and state employees pay more than 15 percent for their health care plans and more than 93 percent of public workers already pay for their own pension contribution, with no pick-up from their employers.

Furthermore, Ohio's teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public employees have already made great sacrifices, saving Ohio taxpayers more than $1 billion dollars to help fix the budget crisis.

Stop the Liars!
Vote No on Issue 2!

Ehh, sometimes you have got to wonder if John Kasich views the world through fox-colored glasses only. I mean after all, anyone watching Wall Street would know this is not exactly the time to sell key state assets for pennies on the dollar.

That's why you have to question Gov. Kasich's motives at this time for his never ending crusade to privatize practically every state asset and give it to investors, all in the name of fiscal responsibility.   Kasich is selling the Prisons and Liquor profits for pennies compared to their true value, allowing his investor friends to gain huge windfalls while shortchanging the citizens and hurting our communities.  Kasich signed HB133, which opens up our State Parks and other public lands, including schools and universities, to oil and gas drilling.  HB133 was a huge give-away to big oil while putting some of our best economic engines, tourism and travel, and our most protected environmental areas at risk.

Now Kasich has a new con to raise some "quick cash" for the state:  privatize the Ohio Turnpike.  Recently, Kasich held a press conference in Toledo to talk about his privatization plan and, once again, was not honest.  Kasich referred to Indiana's example of leasing their turnpike and how the residents of Indiana are "happy" about it.  In fact, this could not be farther from the truth.

In this week's episode of Kasich's Cons, we explore what actually did happen in Indiana and why selling off the Turnpike will be bad for Ohio businesses, residents, and economy. 

In this mini episode of Kasich's Cons, we discuss the continued repetition of the defecation in the Statehouse lie.

Despite being proved FALSE again and again by non partisan outlets like Politifact Ohio, SB5 supporters continue to use the story in an effort to disrespect and discredit SB5 opponents.

Watch It:

Don't let Kasich and his Allies Con Ohio. Stand up against his bus!

Repeal SB5! Vote NO on Issue 2!

Join the movement:
www.weareohio.com
www.standupforohio.com
www.progressohio.org

Beavercreek state representative faces OVI allegation

Ohio Highway Patrol spokeswoman Lt. Anne Ralston said Martin was stopped on U.S. 35 between the city of Jackson and the Ross County line at 10:55 p.m. Friday for going left of center and hauling a trailer without tail lights.

Martin had two kids and two adults as his passengers, she said.
On the side of the roadway, Martin refused to submit to field sobriety tests and a "chemical" test of his blood, breath or urine, Ralston said. As a result, he will automatically lose his driver's license for one year. He was released at the scene with one of the adult passengers behind the wheel.

"The cop says he wants to give him a sobriety test. (Martin) said, 'I'm not taking any test. I've not done anything,'" said Longtime Greene County Republican John Broughton.

Martin did not want to be seen on video recorded by cruiser's dashboard camera system shirtless and dirty from working on the family's cabin, Broughton said.

The Ohio State Patrol video released yesterday clearly shows Martin had a shirt on.

Watch It:

Family Values Republican Martin was also charged with child endangerment as he had three children riding in the vehicle with him.  The two term Representative was also found passed out drunk on then-GOP Minority Leader's William G. Batchelder's Chevy Suburban when discovered by Riffe Center security last year.

In today's episode of Kasich's Cons, Ohio Governor John Kasich talk about privatizing the Ohio Turnpike because it worked out so well for Indiana.

Except that Indiana has had a less than successful privatization effort.  Since the turnpike was leased in 2006 for $3.8 billion for 75 years, tolls have almost doubled and the company that paid to lease the turnpike is preparing to default on it's debt.

Indiana Turnpike Toll in 2007: $4.65
Indiana Turnpike Toll in 2011: $9.00

An increase of 93% in 4 years!

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Republicans in Congress were not functioning independently of one another on their first workday after the Independence Day holiday.

Shortly after noon on July 5, House Speaker John Boehner's "tweeted" a July 3 blog posting from the conservative Weekly Standard's website, labeling it "POTUS' economists: 'Stimulus' Has Cost $278,000 per job."

Around 4 p.m., the National Republican Congressional Committee followed suit with multiple press releases that used the same Weekly Standard blog item to target dozens of Democrats in Congress, including Ohio's Betty Sutton. Its headline: "New Report Shows Dems' Failed Stimulus Cost $278,000 Per Job As Economy Got Worse." It went onto claim that Sutton's "government spending spree" "delivered little except skyrocketing debt owed to foreign countries like China."

By 4:55 p.m., the National Republican Senatorial Committee had recycled the Weekly Standard blog posting to attack Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. This time the claim was: "President Obama's own top economists estimate that the Obama-Brown stimulus debacle cost taxpayers an average $278,000 per job."

National Republican Senatorial Committee says that Sherrod Brown "voted to cut Medicare by over $500 billion in order to fund government-run health care."

When Sen. Sherrod Brown spoke at a Youngstown senior center against a Republican proposal to convert Medicare to a voucher system, the National Republican Senatorial Committee had a ready response.

The NRSC revised and reissued a three-day-old news release that targeted virtually identical statements at Brown, of Ohio, and four other senators who all are Democrats up for re-election next year: Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana, Ben Cardin of Maryland and Bill Nelson of Florida.

"Despite Sherrod Brown's transparent political strategy to mislead Ohio seniors and demagogue Medicare, this serves as another reminder he is the only candidate in Ohio who has voted to cut Medicare by over $500 billion in order to fund government-run health care," said NRSC spokesman Jahan Wilcox.

Wilcox cited the New York Times, Washington Post and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office as supporting sources.

PolitiFact has examined at least four previous claims that the health care reform bill -- formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and informally tagged as Obamacare -- would cut Medicare by $500 billion.

The important point in each examination is that $500 billion -- the figure confirmed by the NRSC's citations -- are not taken out of the current Medicare budget and are not actual cuts. Nowhere in the bill are benefits actually eliminated, experts said.

The $500 billion are reductions to future spending. The health care law attempts to slow the projected growth in Medicare spending by that amount over 10 years.

.... On the Truth-Meter, the NRSC's claim rates as False.

Read More at PolitiFact Ohio

See all PolitiFact Ohio items

If Republican Speaker of the House Bill Batchelder learned how to use a computer perhaps he could fact check himself before he makes ridiculous and untruthful claims like this one.

Ohio House Speaker William G. Batchelder says the consumers' council office has 74 lawyers on staff

Absent a dramatic reversal, the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel will be classified a budget loser once lawmakers finalize the state's two-year spending plan in the coming weeks.

Republican Gov. John Kasich and Republican lawmakers have taken direct aim at the office, which is charged with protecting Ohio consumers in utility cases.

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives supported Kasich's proposal to cut 51 percent of the agency's funding and added provisions to muzzle the office on issues related to natural gas markets and to eliminate the counsel's call center, a repository for consumer complaints.

National consumer groups sharply criticized the proposals, claiming they would prevent the office from fulfilling its mission.

House Speaker William G. Batchelder, a Republican from Medina, was asked recently about the proposed cuts.

Batchelder, echoing similar reasoning from Kasich, said the cuts are justified because the agency is overstaffed and because it plays a role similar to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

Supporters of the consumers' counsel say the office plays a watchdog role separate from the PUCO, which decides whether to approve rate increases the utilities propose.

"There are 74, I believe, attorneys in that office," Batchelder said on the Ohio News Network's "Capitol Square" on May 29. "Is that duplicative? Is it wasteful? And I think since the legislature was busy with an axe on everything else, it makes it pretty hard to sell having the duplication or having 74 lawyers. I don't know how many the attorney general has."

 . . . "We currently have 12 attorneys on staff assigned to case work and two vacancies. In addition to the 12 staff attorneys, the Consumers' Counsel Janine Migden-Ostrander and the Deputy Consumers' Counsel Bruce Weston are also attorneys," OCC spokeswoman Beth Gianforcaro wrote in an e-mail.

 . . . PolitiFact Ohio has noted before that as speaker, Batchelder is one of the most influential politicians in the state and Ohioans listen to what he says. In this case, he made the claim on a television broadcast on a statewide news network.

And in this case his statement is not just inaccurate, but also makes a ridiculous claim.

When that happens, the Truth-O-Meter points to one rating: Pants on Fire.

Read more fact checking of Ohio Politicians at PolitiFact Ohio

"We're the seventh highest taxed state in America. And that's not just state, it's local as well."

Out on the stump, Gov. John Kasich loves talking taxes--specifically about how he thinks people in Ohio pay too much in them.

During his successful run for governor against Democrat Ted Strickland in 2010, Kasich claimed that Ohio was one of the most heavily taxed states in a television ad that got major airplay around Labor Day.

And the Republican governor was talking again about tax burdens at a May 24 event in Dublin, a Columbus suburb, as part of a discussion about his state budget proposal and the need for Ohio to stay competitive with other states.

The state, he said, has given local entities, like schools and libraries and governments, the tools to keep their costs down, and they shouldn't be going to voters for tax increases to offset cuts from the state.

"If we don't lower our taxes, we're not competitive," Kasich told a GOP-friendly crowd inside a local ice cream parlor. "We're the seventh highest taxed state in America. And that's not just state, it's local as well."

... Kasich said Ohio had the seventh highest state and local tax burden in the country, relying on a study of the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation study. However, that figure was for 2005 and the study has been updated with the most recent set of rankings showing the state to have the 18th highest state and local tax burden.

Another tax ranking, compiled by the more neutral Federation of Tax Administrators, showed Ohio 16th in state and local tax burden in 2008.

No matter which set of rankings you use, Ohio clearly no longer has the seventh-highest tax burden.

Kasich needs to update his talking points, and start giving his fellow Republicans a little credit for the full impact of the income tax cuts they began delivering to Ohioans back in 2005.

On the Truth-O-Meter, we rate Kasich's claim as False.

Read the entire article at PolitiFact Ohio.

Sen. Rob Portman says health care reform has hampered hiring by driving up business costs

Congress passed a health care bill last year with twin goals of insuring more Americans while putting the brakes on runaway medical spending. We'll see if those goals are achieved sometime after 2014 when the main provisions take effect. Until then, all we have are projections.

Sen. Rob Portman, however, focused recently on the here and now.  Even before the big provisions kick in that will expand health coverage to nearly all Americans, Portman says he is hearing from employers that their premiums are rising because of the law, called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And those rising costs are making it harder for them to hire new employees, he says.

"The legislation which Washington passed last year has made it more difficult to hire because it's increased the cost of hiring someone," Portman told reporters on May 3, when he unveiled a "Jobs Plan" that included a proposed rollback of the health law.

... After looking at considerable amounts of data and studies, talking with industry and association experts and phoning people who run small companies, we found that Portman's statement had some elements of truth. But there were too many critical facts pointing the other direction, too many misleading or confused assumptions about the cause of double-digit premium hikes -- and too few actual lost jobs or slowdowns attributable to health reform -- for the Truth-O-Meter to point in any other direction than Barely True.

This isn't the only downside for Sen. Portman this week. Ohio Retirees voiced their displeasure with Senator Portman over his vote to end Medicare as we know it.

Federal workers generally cannot collectively bargain pay and benefits, but they can negotiate working conditions, according to the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which administers the labor-management relations program for more than 1 million federal workers.

"Employees also have the right to engage in collective bargaining with respect to conditions of employment through representatives chosen by employees," the FLRA's program guide reads.

There are about 1.6 million non-postal federal workers. Of those, about 1.1 million are represented by more than 90 labor organizations. Some workers in agencies such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission can negotiate wages. Others in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Government Accountability Office and other departments do not engage in collective bargaining.

So what does it mean for federal workers who can negotiate working conditions?

It means they can negotiate discipline policies, hours of work, procedures for performance evaluations, safety, procedures for layoffs and more, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employees union, with about 625,000 members from about 75 federal agencies.

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols acknowledged federal workers do have some ability to bargain collectively.

"The fact is most federal workers cannot collectively bargain for pay or benefits and the governor's point is that under Senate Bill 5, Ohio's public employees will have more collective bargaining rights than most federal employees," Nichols said.

So where does Kasich land on the Truth-O-Meter?

We rate Kasich's statement Barely True.

Read The Full Story at Politifact Ohio and see the break that they gave Gov. Kasich to come up with their "barely true" instead of false rating.

Jon Husted says under his plan Ohio would be among most aggressive on early voting time frame

Secretary of State Jon Husted says he's on a quest to balance "access and accuracy" when it comes to a package of election reforms he is hoping to get Ohio lawmakers to enact.

But that hasn't stopped critics of the Republican's plan from pointing out that Husted's proposal to change Ohio's election laws would narrow the time during which voters can cast ballots through in-person early voting as well as reduce the days in which to request absentee ballots.

<snip>

If Husted's plan were adopted, the absentee ballot request window would shrink to 21 days, which would make Ohio 39th among the eligible states. That means there would be only be eight states with a shorter time frame for absentee ballot requests if Husted's plan became law--excluding the trio of toss-out states.

So how does Husted fare on the Truth-O-Meter.

He said if his plan were put in place, the voting window "will be one of the most aggressive early voting time frames in America." But Husted isn't even close. Ohio would rank 21st among 34 states that offer early in-person voting and 39th among 47 states that offer absentee voting.

His assertion is so wrong, it's ridiculous. And as the top elections officer in the state of Ohio, he has a responsibility to get it right.

For that kind of statement, PolitiFact Ohio "aggressively" strikes a match to his well-tailored trousers. We rate Husted's claim Pants On Fire.

Read the full story at PolitiFact Ohio

Related:

The New Poll Tax: [Round 1] House GOP vs. The Voters

The New Poll Tax: [Round 2] House GOP vs. the Constitution

The New Poll Tax: [Round 3] House GOP vs. the Taxpayer

I'm not sure which is worse.

The fact that Republicans shipped the development of their "SB5Truth" website out of Ohio (to Florida, of course) or that they hired a developer whose only connection to Ohio seems to be that they created the campaign website for Nazi reenactor Rich Iott.

Republicans were apparently ashamed of this fact, as Brushfire Digital scrubbed all references to Iott immeadiately after it was discovered and tweeted in response to Speaker Bill Batchelder's announcement of the new republican website in support of SB5. 

You can see the screenshot taken before the scrubbing took place above.

Which do you think is worse? 

That The Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee, outsourced what should have been Ohio jobs to Florida or that they showed support for the firm that provided the web site for this guy?

Republican's referendum campaign in aupport of their union busting, job killing SB 5 legislation is off to an inauspicious start, wouldn't you agree?

On Friday, Isthmus newspaper and the Wisconsin Associated Press filed a lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker over his office's failure to respond to open records requests regarding emails received by his office.

"The governor said he had gotten more than 8,000 emails as of Feb. 17, with 'the majority' urging him to 'stay firm' on his budget repair bill," says Isthmus News Editor Bill Lueders. "We're just trying to see these largely supportive responses."

The lawsuit, filed in Dane County court, names as defendants Gov. Walker and the office of the governor.

Isthmus made its request by hand-delivered letter on Feb. 18, a day after Walker referred to these 8,000 emails and about an hour before he held another press conference saying the number had since swelled to 19,000, again mostly positive. The paper followed this with two communications with Walker spokesperson Cullen Werwie (the second of which, on Feb. 24, was also sent to Brian Hagedorn, the governor's legal counsel). Both asked for an update on the status of the original request.

The Associated Press, through reporter Todd Richmond, emailed its request for the referenced 8,000 emails on Feb. 18. Richmond followed this on Feb. 25 with an email to Werwie and Hagedorn inquiring as to the status of his request and asking that it be expanded to include "all emails the governor has received that mention the budget repair bill."

As of today, the governor's office and his legal counsel have not responded to these requests for records, or provided information on their status.

In Ohio, 90% of the contacts with Gov. Kasich's office and State Legislators ran 90% against destroying collective bargaining for public workers and while they at least told to truth about the overwhelming lack of public support for SB5 they went ahead and voted it out of the Senate 17-16 anyway.

Watch as President of the Senate Tom Niehaus tells one big lie in an attempt to smear SB 5 protestors and public workers in general.

From PolitiFact Ohio:

The lasting image thus far surrounding the controversy over Senate Bill 5, a proposal to restrict collective bargaining rights for organized labor, occurred on Feb. 22 when more than 5,000 union workers staged a raucous protest rally with colorful signs and bullhorns outside of the Ohio Statehouse.

The protesters' target was Republican Gov. John Kasich and the GOP-controlled Senate that is pushing the bill. Even Republican Senate President Tom Niehaus the next day grudgingly expressed admiration for the groups' ability to coordinate so well and make themselves part of the lawmaking process.

But right after comments praising the protesters, Niehaus veered in a totally different direction, painting a different lasting image of the protesters at the Statehouse -- one not quite so becoming.

"Unfortunately, we have documented instances where people defecated in the building. We have documented instances where they have written on the walls," Niehaus said. "This is the people's house. I used to say treat it like it's yours. Well, I don't want it to be like it's theirs if that's the way they treat their own home."

Some union groups responded immediately, denying that a group featuring police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses and others unionized workers would commit such vile acts in the storied building. [...]

We'll give Niehaus a small nod for being right about the writing on the walls. Dodd said there was some writing on the walls inside the Statehouse, but he also noted it was with chalk and was easily cleaned up by the Statehouse maintenance crew. There were also some union stickers stuck to Statehouse floors that needed to be scraped up.

But Niehaus' key accusation dealt with defecation..

In the context of his statement, he clearly was suggesting that protesters soiled the floor, and that it happened inside the Statehouse.

As Senate president, Niehaus is one of the most influential people in the state government and when he speaks people listen. Yet this claim is beyond inaccurate. It's a ridiculous assertion that is unsupported by the people who actually take care of the Statehouse.

Statements that are both inaccurate and ridiculous get a special rating on the Truth-O-Meter: Pants on Fire.

Read The Full Story at PolitiFact Ohio

There was a brief debate on WKSU earlier this week as the Fight to Fix Gun Checks tour came to northeast ohio.

Listen in as Jim Irvine Chairman of Buckeye Firearms says, "These crimes never happen in a police station".

Jim, just a month before you made this statement, a gunman opened fire inside a Detroit police precinct wounding four officers including a commander before he was shot and killed by police, authorities said.

There's even video to prove your outrageous lie.

A graphic 68-second video released by Detroit police Friday shows a gunman striding into one of the city's precinct stations, spraying volleys from a shotgun at surprised officers before being fatally wounded within inches of three of his victims.

The grainy surveillance video with muted color from Sunday's rampage at the 6th Precinct was made public only after members of the city's police force had seen it, Police Chief Ralph Godbee said.

The video shows Lamar Moore, 38, walking into the precinct and past the building's raised front desk. He pulls a shotgun he had concealed along his left side and opens fire down a hallway, hitting a female sergeant in her bullet-proof vest. He's then seen firing more shots down the hallway as he reverses his steps back into the middle of the lobby.

Two other sergeants were down that hallway returning fire at Moore, Assistant Chief Chester Logan told reporters viewing the recording Friday at Detroit Police Headquarters.

Watch It:

Gov. John Kasich's boast of rapid problem solving undersells previous administration's work

Gov. John Kasich wanted to make a splash.

The swashbuckling Ohio governor wanted to show Ohio's business community he was serious about his vow to speed up the permitting process at the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Kasich found just such an opportunity when an air pollution permit for an Eastern Ohio energy company, Mingo Junction Energy Center (MJEC), was granted during his first week in office.

At a news conference on his fifth day in office, the Republican governor described the air permit as having "languished" under the previous administration and was incredulous that EPA officials had "held the darn thing up for over 20 months."

Kasich implied that EPA paper-pushers had been negligent. "It's just bureaucracy. It's a lack of commitment and a lack of vision."

Kasich praised his new EPA director, Scott Nally, for acting quickly to get the permit issued. "This is a fact -- it was over 20 months they couldn't get an agreement, he did it in 48 hours," Kasich boasted.

Kasich's contention at the news conference that "they couldn't get an agreement" for 20 months that Nally got in 48 hours is an oversimplification, particularly since a draft permit was issued in mid-November, and state officials were ready to issue a final permit while Strickland was still in office.

Those are critical facts that would give the listener a different impression of the governor's statement. That's why we rate Kasich's claim to be Barely True.

Though Fox News claims President Obama "misquoted a familiar Bible verse" during the National Prayer breakfast yesterday, Media Matters points out "they seem unfamiliar with the fact that there is more than one version of the Bible."

If you visit Fox Nation right now, you are greeted by the following story on their front page:

If you follow the link, you are taken to a page on Fox Nation that claims Obama "misquoted a familiar Bible verse" during his address yesterday:

President Obama misquoted a familiar Bible verse during a faith-based address at the National Prayer Breakfast.

"Those who wait on the Lord will soar on wings like eagles, and they will run and not be weary, and they will walk and not faint," the president said during a speech to several thousand people at the breakfast.

But the actual passage, from Isaiah 40:31, states: "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

Somewhat ironically, while Fox Nation appears to be positioning themselves as the arbiters of authentic Christianity, they seem unfamiliar with the fact that there is more than one version of the Bible.

Obama was  quoting from the New International Version, while Fox Nation was pointing to the King James Version to "debunk" him.

This would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.

Here's the President's full remarks at yesterday's National Prayer Breakfast.

Watch It:

HT: Media Matters For America

Today, anti-abortion rights propagandist Lila Rose released her latest in a series of heavily edited videos seeking to demonstrate that Planned Parenthood engages in criminal activities. Rose's organization, Live Action, claims their video exposes what they call "Planned Parenthood's cover-up of child sex trafficking."

Except that isn't what the video shows at all.

Rather, the Live Action video shows edited comments made by a single Planned Parenthood employee. Live Action has so far refused to publicly release the full video of the incident, instead posting what the organization itself admits is an "abridged 11-minute video." (Live Action claims they are "sending full footage" to law enforcement officials.)

Planned Parenthood wrote to the FBI about a pattern of incidents where men would travel to their offices across the country and describe their role in illegal sex trafficking, warning that while the pattern could be part of an elaborate hoax, the FBI should investigate the potential lawbreaking:

Last week, Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder summarizing the visits and requesting an FBI investigation. If the man's assertions were true, she wrote, they would indicate possible violations of federal laws dealing with interstate sex trafficking of minors.

However, Richards said the visits could be part of a hoax resembling some past actions by anti-abortion activists.

"Once inside, these people have recorded 'undercover' videos of their conversations with our clinic staff and then selectively and maliciously edited the videos," she wrote. "This may be happening once again. If so, this kind of activity should be firmly condemned."

Planned Parenthood's request to the FBI to investigate the possible sex ring clearly contradicts and discredits Live Action's claim that Planned Parenthood is colluding with lawbreakers.

The video of a fake pimp and prostitute greatly resembles James O'Keefe's highly edited and misleading tapes where he posed as a pimp with a prostitute at ACORN offices. As Talking Points Memo points out, O'Keefe and Live Action's head Lila Rose have collaborated before and first met at the right-wing Leadership Institute.

Rose has become a rock star of sorts in the Religious Right community. At the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit, she called for abortions to be performed in public.

Watch It:

HT: Media Matters, Right Wing Watch

In The Republican Rebuttal To The President's State Of The Union Speech Tonight Rep. Ryan Claimed The Affordable Care Act Is Stifling Job Creation

RYAN: What we already know about the President's health care law is this: Costs are going up, premiums are rising, and millions of people will lose the coverage they currently have. Job creation is being stifled by all of its taxes, penalties, mandates and fees.

"Stifled?" The Private Sector Has Grown By 1.1 Million Jobs Since Reform Bill Passed

PolitiFact: The health care law a "job killer"? The evidence falls short

Republicans have used the "job-killing" claim hundreds of times -- so often that they used the phrase in the name of the bill. It implies that job losses will be one of the most significant effects of the law. But they have flimsy evidence to back it up.

The phrase suggests a massive decline in employment, but the data doesn't support that. The Republican evidence is extrapolated from a report that was talking about a reduction in the labor supply rather than the loss of jobs, or based on measures that weren't included in the final health care law.

We rate the statement False.

Read The Full Analysis at PolitiFact

The billboard for Rush Limbaugh's show in Tucson, Az. where Saturday's murder's took place.

Limbaugh Attacks Obama For Calling On Americans To Live Up To The Dreams Of 9-Year-Old Shooting Victim

From the January 13 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

The Democratic National Committee is firing away at House Republicans for what appears to be a backtracking of a pledge they made during the midterm election campaign.

The DNC is out with a new web video Friday morning that attacks GOP lawmakers for now saying that the $100 billion in spending cuts in the federal budget that they promised to cut is likely out of reach, blaming it on the fiscal calendar among other things.

At a news conference Thursday, new House Speaker John Boehner defended himself against talk that he is backtracking, but he avoided answering  questions about a specific dollar figure on spending cuts.

Watch It:

After winning the House in the November midterms, Republicans -- who have long complained about Democratic stewardship of the lower chamber -- promised to run the House in an open and transparent process, allowing the minority party to offer amendments on legislation and permitting time for fair debate. But as Democrats now prepare to offer counter amendments to the GOP's health care repeal bills, the GOP is walking back its pledge.

As the Washington Post's Greg Sargent reported yesterday, incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is suggesting "that the GOP will not allow what's known as an 'open rule'" which would allow Democrats to introduce a series of potentially embarrassing amendments. "It's a straightforward document," Cantor said of the legislation that would repeal the largest reform of America's health care system. "It reflect what most people inside the beltway and outside the beltway want."

But ironically, the procedural move also contradicts what Republicans wanted from Democrats throughout the health care debate. When the House first passed reform in November 2009 and then again in March 2010, Republicans insisted that they should be able to offer unlimited amendments to the legislation on the House floor and argued that all parts of the bill must first be debated in the appropriate committees of jurisdiction -- which the GOP's repeal bills would bypass.

Watch It:

Today, an Ohio-based group called Citizens for Community Values issued an "Action Alert," urging its supporters in Bowling Green, Ohio to take to the polls on November 2nd to protect their children. Unlike many of the other conservative calls to action we've seen this election cycle, CCV isn't concerned about the impact of rising debt on their children or any of the other causes célèbre Republicans are tying to future generations of Americans nowadays. No, CCV is concerned about men in dresses.

That's right -- men in dresses scaring little girls in public restrooms.

Citizens for Community Values' President Phil Burress lays out this nightmare scenario in the group's "Action Alert":

The major benefits start in 2014, when tens of millions of the uninsured will gain coverage through Medicaid or by buying private coverage -- with government help for low- and middle-income Americans -- on the new competitive exchanges. If you lose your job, you will no longer lose access to insurance. And with government help the coverage should be affordable.

Washington, DC - Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the 1,000-member coalition that led the successful fight for health reform, launched a 10-state telephone campaign today to warn a half-million seniors, including tens of thousands in the 15^th and 16^th Ohio Congressional Districts, about deceptive television ads designed to scare them into thinking their Medicare-provided health care will be disrupted. The biggest lie in the ads is that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), enacted on March 23, will cut the guaranteed Medicare benefits seniors receive. That is a falsehood spread by insurance industry interests trying to protect their excessive profits. The leading seniors group, AARP, says that's not true and that the law is filled with good things for Medicare and its enrollees.

"The ACA strengthens Medicare by protecting and improving guaranteed benefits and cracking down on waste, fraud and inefficiency," said Brian Rothenberg, ProgressOhio. "It will keep Medicare financially stable for 12 years longer than if the law hadn't been passed, and it prevents cuts to Medicare's guaranteed benefits, and reduces the cost of prescription drugs."

Susan B. Anthony List, Other Anti-Reform Organizations Could be Penalized for False Ads

Washington, DC - The Ohio Elections Commission today found probable cause that the group Susan B. Anthony List broke the law by falsely asserting in political advertisements that Congressman Steve Dreihaus (OH-01) voted to allow federal funding of abortion. The ruling has wide-reaching implications for self-described pro-life groups currently engaged in smear campaigns against a number of elected officials who voted for the health care reform act earlier this year.

Since the bill passed, a host of organizations - including the Susan B. Anthony List, Americans United for Life, National Right to Life Committee, Family Research Council, and the National Republican Congressional Committee - have used the false abortion funding claim to improperly influence the November elections. In doing so, they ignored expert analyses and independent fact-checks showing that the abortion funding claim was inaccurate. The ruling has national implications because similar ads sponsored by the Susan B. Anthony List and Americans United for Life are running against numerous Democratic Congressional candidates, including Reps. John Boccieri (OH-16), Kathy Dalhkemper (PA-03), Joe Donnelly (IN-02), and Tom Perriello (VA-05).

"The Ohio Election Commission's probable cause finding confirms what we've said all along: that organizations like the Susan B. Anthony List are deliberately spreading lies for political gain," said Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United. "In doing so, these groups have betrayed the voters and made a mockery of the democratic process."

Visit "The (Mis)Informant"

Republican Ohio Secretary of State candidate Jon Husted slammed opponent Maryellen O'Shaughnessy in a recent television advertisement as a career politician who once passed legislation to increase her own pay.

O'Shaughnessy, of Columbus, has heard the criticisms before. But that didn't stop Husted from recycling them within a more current anti-Democrat framework.

"O'Shaughnessy even voted for her own personal stimulus package - a taxpayer-funded pay raise for herself," the commercial's narrator says.

It's an accusation O'Shaughnessy has heard before. Her opponent in a 2002 race for Franklin County Commissioner, Dewey Stokes, also produced a TV commercial that ripped O'Shaughnessy for raising her own pay, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

O'Shaughnessy's campaign said she couldn't be blamed for boosting her pay because she was ineligible for the raise after she and the rest of Columbus City Council approved it.

She didn't approve a pay raise for herself. She voted to increase pay for whomever was elected to take that council seat. The voters decided she should get the pay raise by re-electing her in 2001.

We rate Husted's statement False.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more commonly known as the stimulus bill, has been featured in more than 130 TV ads this year, according to a database maintained by Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group. In many of those ads, Republicans claim the bill has "failed" (a matter of opinion) or state (correctly) that unemployment has gone up since President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on Feb. 17, 2009. The national unemployment rate was 8.2 percent in February 2009, and it now stands at 9.6 percent, having peaked at 10.1 percent in October 2009.

But it's just false to say that the stimulus created "no jobs" or "failed to save and create jobs" or "has done nothing to reduce unemployment" - or similar claims that the stimulus did not produce any jobs.

As we have written before, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a report in August that said the stimulus bill has "[l]owered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points" and "[i]ncreased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million."

Simply put, more people would be unemployed if not for the stimulus bill. The exact number of jobs created and saved is difficult to estimate, but nonpartisan economists say there's no doubt that the number is positive.

The Republican "Pledge to America," released Sept. 23, contains some dubious factual claims:

• It declares that "the only parts of the economy expanding are government and our national debt." Not true. So far this year government employment has declined slightly, while private sector employment has increased by 763,000 jobs.
• It says that "jobless claims continue to soar," when in fact they are down eight percent from their worst levels.
• It repeats a bogus assertion that the Internal Revenue Service may need to expand by 16,500 positions, an inflated estimate based on false assumptions and guesswork.
• It claims the stimulus bill is costing $1 trillion, considerably more than the $814 billion, 10-year price tag currently estimated by nonpartisan congressional budget experts.
• It says Obama's tax proposals would raise taxes on "roughly half the small business income in America," an exaggeration. Much of the income the GOP is counting actually comes from big businesses making over $50 million a year.

In general the Pledge draws a gloomy picture of the sputtering economy, the horrid state of joblessness, and a federal budget wracked by record deficits and ballooning debt. Many of the claims are true.

But as might be expected in a partisan manifesto, this is a lopsided rendering. At times it is more caricature than portrait: any facts that might brighten it are simply left out, and some claims are exaggerated or incorrect.

Read Fact Check.org's report on The Pledge

In their 'Pledge to America,' unveiled today, House Republicans made a lot of promises. What is most striking is the hypocrisy of so many of these promises - which run directly counter to their record. Leader Boehner admitted today what the 'pledge' really means: "We are not going to be any different than we've been." Here are some key examples of GOP rhetoric vs. the GOP record:

SMALL BUSINESS TAX CUTS

RHETORIC: GOP says they're for small business tax cuts

REALITY: GOP has voted against 7 out of the 8 small business tax cuts enacted so far in this Congress and today they apparently are planning on voting against 8 more small business tax cuts in the Small Business Jobs bill (H.R. 1; H.R. 3590; H.R. 2847)

KEEPING US JOBS HERE AT HOME

RHETORIC: GOP says they're going to promote American jobs

REALITY: GOP has voted repeatedly to protect tax breaks that encourage corporations to ship American jobs overseas (H.R. 4213; H.R. 1586; H.R. 5982; H.R. 4849)

SMALL BUSINESS REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

RHETORIC: GOP says they're eliminating the small business "1099" reporting requirements

REALITY: GOP voted against eliminating the small business "1099" reporting requirements (H.R. 5982)

TAX CUTS

RHETORIC: GOP says they're for tax cuts for the middle class

REALITY: GOP has pledged to raise taxes on more than 110 million American families by repealing the Recovery Act; and they are holding President Obama's middle class tax cuts hostage to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires

DEFICITS

RHETORIC: GOP says they're going to put us on the path to a balanced budget

REALITY: GOP's plan would add more than $4 trillion to the deficits they created in the last decade - borrowing from China to give tax cuts to billionaires and millionaires, and increasing the deficit further by repealing health reform

TARP

RHETORIC: GOP says they're ending TARP

REALITY: When the GOP voted against Wall Street Reform, they voted against a provision winding down TARP as of June 25, 2010 - banning new programs and requiring repayments to TARP to be used to reduce the debt - which saves U.S. taxpayers $11 billion (H.R. 4173). And now, overall TARP spending authority expires next week, on October 3 - so a GOP promise to "end" TARP is just political hyperbole

Rep. John Boehner:

For his part, President Barack Obama continues to demonstrate that he is not listening to the American people. He has ruled out any compromise on his proposal to raise taxes on families and small businesses. He wants Congress to move forward with a plan that, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, would raise taxes on half of small-business income in America. The president has also proposed more of the same failed stimulus spending that has led to fewer jobs and more debt. [Politico, 9/14/10, emphasis added]

1) President Barack Obama continues to demonstrate that he is not listening to the American people

The Public Disagrees With Boehner On Tax Cuts For The Rich

Gallup Poll: 59% Of Americans Favor Ending Tax Cuts For Those Making Over $250,000.  According to a September 2010 Gallup poll: "A majority of Americans favor letting the tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration expire for the wealthy. While 37% support keeping the tax cuts for all Americans, 44% want them extended only for those making less than $250,000 and 15% think they should expire for all taxpayers." [Gallup, 9/10/10]

CNN Poll: 69% Of Americans Favor Ending Tax Cuts For Those Making Over $250,000.  A CNN poll in late August found that a majority, 51 percent, favors President Obama's plan to extend tax cuts for the middle class while allowing the tax cuts for those making over $250,000 per year to expire.  Eighteen percent believe all of the tax cuts should expire. [CNN, 8/20/10]

CBS Poll: 56% Of Americans Favor Ending Tax Cuts For Those Making Over $250,000.  According to CBS News: "The tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush are set to expire at the end of the year, and Democrats and Republicans will spar this fall over whether to extend them for all Americans, or to allow the tax cuts to expire for the richest Americans. A new CBS News poll finds that a majority of Americans, 56 percent, say the tax cuts should expire for households earning over $250,000 per year, as Democrats have proposed. Thirty-six percent of Americans say they should not be allowed to expire." [CBS News, 8/26/10]

House Republican Leader John Boehner appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America," peddling a discredited Republican talking point about the impact of extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy on America's small businesses.

The facts are clear:

At least 97 percent of small businesses would not pay a penny more due to letting these upper-income tax rates expire for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.

In early August, the nonpartisan Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact evaluated the accuracy of the Republican claim that allowing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire would hurt the majority of America's small businesses.  PolitiFact labeled this GOP claim a "pants on fire" falsehood.  As PolitiFact concluded:

Two independent studies that looked at the impact of the Democratic proposal on small businesses found that only between 2 to 3 percent of tax filers who report having what can be thought of as small business income will be affected.

And even these analyses overstate the impact on small businesses.  Included in that small percentage of "small businesses" affected (2-3 percent) is anyone who receives any type of partnership or business income - and many of them are not what you would consider "small business owners."  They include hedge fund managers, private equity fund managers, owners of privately held multinational companies, lobbyists, and partners in major law firms.

As President Obama said in his speech in Ohio:

...[Republicans] should not hold middle class tax cuts hostage any longer...And for those who claim that this is bad for growth and bad for small businesses, let me remind you that with those tax rates in place, this country created 22 million jobs, raised incomes, and had the largest surplus in history... In fact, if the Republican leadership in Congress really wants to help small businesses, they'll stop using legislative maneuvers to block an up-or-down vote on a small business jobs bill that's before the Senate right now...

Instead of working to help American small businesses, Republicans have voted against:

Small business lending to leverage $300 billion in private bank loans for small businesses so they can grow and hire

Seven out of the eight small businesses tax cuts that have been enacted into law - including doubling write-offs for investment in new equipment, a payroll tax holiday for hiring workers, and tax credits to help them offer health care coverage

“I have had enough – and the American people have had enough – of Washington politicians talking about wanting to create jobs as a ploy to get themselves re-elected while doing everything possible to prevent jobs from being created,” Boehner said. But as the Washington Post noted, the speech “does not expand the GOP’s existing economic proposals in any significant way.”

ANALYSIS: It would be difficult to find another commercial that has the appearance of being so carefully tested by polls and focus groups. It hits virtually every important theme - a politician listening to voters, an outsider not part of the Washington establishment, and a candidate talking about jobs.

Yet the commercial, while avoiding any direct attacks on Senate Democratic candidate Lee Fisher, is extremely misleading by omission. A person watching would assume that: (A) Portman has never held political office, (B) Does not wear a business suit and tie, and (C) Is just some guy who hangs out at barbecues.

In fact, Portman spent more than a decade as a Republican congressman from Cincinnati, and served for one year each as U.S. trade representative and budget director under former President George W. Bush. As a member of Congress, he voted for the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China. He supported the 2001 tax cuts that many economists believe were a factor in transforming a $128 billion federal budget surplus in 2001 into a decade of major deficits.

As for the 400,000 jobs lost? Ohio lost 379,900 non-farm payrolls jobs from December 2006 - just before Fisher became lieutenant governor — until June of this year. But the state has been steadily losing jobs since 2000, under both Republican and Democratic governors. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Ohio has had a net loss of 568,300 jobs from January of 2000 until June of this year.

Read The Full Post at The Dayton Daily News

Watch It:

While the Constitution forbids prohibiting a mosque from being built blocks away from ground zero (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”), Republicans are salivating at the prospect of ignoring the constitution (again) and using this for political hay.

Apparently, the Family Values Party is not concerned with the strip clubs (like New York Dolls) that surround hallowed ground because nothing says Christian Values and Apple Pie like a strip club.

MYTH: Democrats plan a $3.8 trillion tax increase on January 1st.

FACT: NOT TRUE! President Obama’s FY 2011 budget proposes $1.7 trillion in tax relief—extending the 2001, 2003 tax cuts for middle-class families, including the child tax credit, reductions in rates, and marriage penalty relief for middle class Americans, while allowing “tax cuts that affect families earning more than $250,000 a year” to expire. This would mean no tax change for 98% of American families and at least 97% of small businesses. And for the wealthiest 2% of Americans with an average income of $800,000 per year, the top marginal tax rate would return to the level at the end of the 1990s, a time of remarkable job growth and economic strength.

Both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid support the extension of middle class tax cuts and plan to bring legislation to the floor to extend these middle class tax cuts this year. In fact, the new statutory pay-as-you-go budget law paves the way enacting this key middle class tax relief—exempting:

Extension of child tax credit, marriage penalty relief and reduction in income tax rates for taxpayers with incomes below $250,000.

Permanent extension of 15% top rate on capital gains and dividends for couples earning under $250,000 and individual earning under $200,000.

We believe these tax cuts for middle class families are critical. America is a less equal country today than it was ten years ago, in part because of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent. The wealthiest 400 taxpayers in 2007 – who earned an average of more than $340 million dollars each that year – paid only 17 percent of their income in tax, a lower rate than many middle class families.

Independent analysts have rated these Republican charges a “pants on fire” lie. PolitiFact noted that Sarah Palin:

responded as if the Democrats intend to allow all the Bush tax cuts to expire for everyone… But that’s not what Democrats are proposing; they want to leave tax rates untouched for people who make less [than $250,000]. We’ve looked for a Democrat who supports letting all the Bush tax cuts expire, and we haven’t been able to find one.

Politifact also noted:

…President Obama has proposed formal plans to leave tax rates in place for the middle class while raising taxes on the wealthy — for example, on pages 39 and 164 of his 2011 budget.

When the tax cuts were put in place, Republicans sunsetted them after 10 years in order to hide their true cost to the deficit. So their expiration would be due to Republican policies.

Republicans also voted against tax relief for 125 million families and for small businesses, while offering up the same policies of tax cuts for the wealthiest few that got us into this mess.

MYTH: Letting the tax cuts for the wealthiest few expire will hurt small business.

Neugebauer said that "94 percent of small businesses will face higher taxes under the Democrats plan." The statement is problematic in several ways. First, it implicitly assumes that the Democratic plan is to let all of the tax cuts lapse, when, in fact, Democratic officials have consistently said that they intend to raise taxes only for the wealthiest individuals. Second, two independent studies that looked at the impact of the Democratic proposal on small businesses found that only between 2 to 3 percent of tax filers who report having what can be thought of as small business income will be affected. One of those studies came from the very source that Neugebauer incorrectly cited. Finally, reporting business income doesn't equal owning a small business, and data from the Tax Policy Center confirm that in the top tax bracket, only about a third of the tax filers report having at least 50 percent of their income from a business. We looked and looked for a shred of truth and couldn't find one, so we rate this Pants on Fire.

John Kasich’s new television ad "Record",

Watch It:

But wait a minute . . . which John Kasich are we to believe?

Now in a TV ad or then . . . more shall we say . . . unscripted ?

Watch It:

President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a moratorium on new oil deepwater drilling permits, and shut down 33 exploratory deepwater wells on May 6.

A similar moratorium on new shallow water drilling lifted three weeks later. "Shallow" in this context means up to 499 feet deep. Both orders, however, were vague and left 3,600 existing offshore oil wells active in Gulf waters.

Since the spill, 17 new offshore oil drilling projects have been permitted.

An independent counsel has found a legal defense fund for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin provided "private financial benefit" for her in violation of state law.

Anchorage, Alaska, attorney Tim Petumenos said Palin -- whose supporters established the fund to help her pay legal bills in an investigation of several ethics complaints against her -- has agreed to return $386,856 donated to the trust prior to her resignation as governor last year, the Anchorage Daily News reported Thursday.

Petumenos said Palin personally gained from the defense fund's use of her official position as governor in appealing for donations. He also concluded that Kristen Cole, the fund's trustee, provided "substantial private benefit" to Palin, although Cole was a public official the newspaper said.

Cole had been appointed by Palin to head several state boards, including the royalty oil and gas advisory board.

'Party of Parasites' author took $1M in farm subsidies

The Raytown farmer who posted a sign on a semi-truck trailer accusing Democrats of being the “Party of Parasites” received more than $1 million in federal crop subsidies since 1995.

But David Jungerman says the payouts don’t contradict the sign he put up in a corn field in Bates County along U.S. 71 Highway.

“That’s just my money coming back to me,” Jungerman, 72, said Monday. “I pay a lot in taxes. I’m not a parasite.”

After a story about Jungerman’s trailer ran in Sunday’s Star, however, some readers called him a hypocrite for criticizing others for getting government help while taking government subsidies paid for by taxpayers.

Jungerman said he put up the sign to protest people who pay no taxes, but, “Always have their hand out for whatever the government will give them” in social programs.

Crop subsidies are different, he said. When crop prices dip below a certain point, the federal government makes up the difference with a subsidy payment.

According to a farm subsidy data base, Jungerman received $1,095,101 in the past 15 years, including $224,763 in 2000. Last year, he received $34,303.

He also said that the sign is aimed at national Democrats, not local Democrats, many of whom are “are old-fashioned Harry Truman Democrats,” who Jungerman says are “more conservative than many Republicans.”

For the record, Harry Truman campaigned on establishing a single-payer health care system and famously vetoed tax cuts, making him much more progressive than many of today’s Democrats.

HT: Think Progress

On BigGovernment.com, Ken Blackwell falsely claimed that Elena Kagan has shown "support for cloning human beings."

Most interesting, perhaps, is Kagan's support for cloning human beings. Clinton Library documents show that she opposed any effort by Congress to prevent human beings from being cloned specifically to create embryos that would be experimented upon, then killed. Gallup recently reported that 88% of Americans oppose cloning human beings. Kagan does not.

In fact, Kagan recommended that former President Bill Clinton propose a bill that would ban cloning for the purpose of creating a human baby while still allowing important stem-cell research to continue.

Kagan actually recommended that Clinton "submit legislation banning human cloning."

In a May 29, 1997, memo written when Kagan was deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, Kagan and White House science and technology adviser Jack Gibbons stated:

We recommend: (1) that you support domestic legislation banning human cloning, and that you announce specific legislation at the top of your June 10th press conference; and (2) that the U.S. support the gist of France's proposed cloning paragraph while insisting on critical modifications.

Kagan also recommended that such legislation allow stem-cell research to continue.

In the same memo, Kagan recommended that the legislation not be written in a way that would ban stem-cell research, which uses cloned DNA. The memo said:

We recommend that you embrace NBAC's [National Bioethics Advisory Commission] proposal to establish a narrowly crafted time-limited legislative moratorium. Legislation is the only way to establish a comprehensive, enforceable prohibition .on cloning entire human beings in all publicly and privately funded research and clinical activities. If carefully written, the ban will not preclude important research.

President Clinton's NBAC supported a ban on cloning that would not ban stem-cell research.

According to a fact sheet in Kagan's files, the NBAC stated that "it is morally unacceptable for anyone to attempt to create a child with the technology used to create Dolly the sheep."

The fact sheet further stated that "[t]he Commission also found that the new technology may have many agricultural and medical benefits" and that "cloning of DNA, cells, tissues, and non-human animals" for research purposes is "not ethically problematic."

Yesterday, Republican Leader Boehner claimed the Bush tax cuts enacted under Republican controlled Congresses did not lead to the deficit:

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday defended tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush, saying they did not lead to the deficit that currently confronts the country.

“It’s not the marginal tax rates … that’s not what led to the budget deficit,” he told reporters, adding, “The revenue problem we have today is a result of what happened in the economic collapse some 18 months ago.”

In fact, the Bush-era tax cuts are the largest contributor to the deficit:

The Bush 2001 tax cuts added $1,350 billion and the Bush 2003 tax cuts added $348.7 billion to the deficit—compare that to major legislation the Democratic-led 111th Congress has passed:

Other lasting legacies of the Bush Administration on our national debt and deficit include:

According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Republicans receive far more campaign money from the oil and gas industry than do Democrats:

So far in 2010, the oil and gas industries have contributed $12.8 million to all candidates, with 71% of that money going to Republicans. During the 2008 election cycle, 77% of the industry’s $35.6 million in contributions went to Republicans, and in the 2008 presidential contest, Republican candidate Sen. John McCain received more than twice as much money from the oil and gas industries as Obama: McCain collected $2.4 million; Obama, $898,000.

Bank bailouts not in bill, but liquidation is

With the financial reform debate front and center, "bailout" has been the word of the week.

The debate is critical because voters hate bailouts. In fact, Republican pollster Frank Luntz advised opponents of regulation that "the single best way to kill any legislation is to link it to the Big Bank Bailout."

We're wading into the debate, starting with a claim from Sen. Mitch McConnell that the new financial regulation "actually guarantees future bailouts of Wall Street banks" and that it would be at taxpayer expense.

Those comments must have sounded like fighting words to President Obama. He directly rebutted McConnell, the leader of the Senate Republicans, in his weekly address.

McConnell has "made the cynical and deceptive assertion that reform would somehow enable future bailouts – when he knows that it would do just the opposite," Obama said.

We based our ruling primarily on the legislation, which clearly states that the intention is to liquidate failing companies, not bail them out. To do that, it creates a fund with contributions from financial firms, not from taxpayer funds. Nothing in the bill "guarantees" future bailouts of Wall Street banks. And so we rated McConnell's statement False.

Read The Full Response To Mitch Mcconnell's Lie From PolitiFact

• Mitch McConnell and Orrin Hatch, two leading voices against the Dem use of reconciliation, along with 19 other current GOP Senators, voted for the 2001 Bush tax cuts, which passed by a simple majority (58-33) via reconciliation.

• McConnell, Hatch, NRSC chief John Cornyn and 21 other current GOP Senators voted for the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, which accelerated the Bush tax cuts and added new ones. This passed by a simple majority via reconciliation — 50-50 in the Senate with Dick Cheney casting the tiebreaking vote.

• John McCain, a leading critic of Dem plans to use reconciliation, along with McConnell, Cornyn and 27 other current GOP Senators, voted to pass the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act, which reduced Medicaid spending and allowed parents of disabled children to buy into Medicaid. This passed by a simple majority (52-47) via reconciliation.

• McCain, McConnell, Cornyn, and 28 other current GOP Senators voted for the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, which extended the Bush tax cuts for some tax brackets. This passed by a simple majority (54-44) via reconciliation.

Current GOP Senators’ Votes via Reconciliation

Another Ohio righty blogger goes on record in an effort to prove that he is definitely not smarter than a fifth grader:

For the month of February, the average warm temperature was 34.1 degrees versus an historical high of 43.1 degrees. The average low was 19.7 degrees v the historical low of 25 degrees. So we, in fact, have proof that our scientific consensus is accurate.

But hey don't take my word for it. Unlike Phil Jones, I didn't destroy the evidence. You can look it up here.

And you know what he's right . . . for Cincinnati, Ohio!

Maybe he's just ignorant of what the word "global" means?

The pace of global warming continues unabated despite images of Europe crippled by a deep freeze and parts of the United States blasted by blizzards.

"January, according to satellite (data), was the hottest January we've ever seen," said Nicholls of Monash University's School of Geography and Environmental Science in Melbourne.

"Last November was the hottest November we've ever seen, November-January as a whole is the hottest November-January the world has seen," he said of the satellite data record since 1979.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in December that 2000-2009 was the hottest decade since records began in 1850, and that 2009 would likely be the fifth warmest year on record. WMO data show that eight out of the 10 hottest years on record have all been since 2000.

Britain's official forecaster, the UK Met Office, said severe winter freezes like the one this year, one of the coldest winters in the country for nearly 30 years, could become increasingly rare because of the overall warming trend.

Scientists say global warming is not uniform in all areas and that climate models predict there will likely be greater extremes of cold and heat, floods and droughts.

"Global warming is a trend superimposed upon natural variability, variability that still exists despite global warming," said Kevin Walsh, associate professor of meteorology at the University of Melbourne.

Or, maybe he's an obsessed John Fogerty fan?

Doo doo doo Lookin' out my back door.
There's a giant doing cartwheels a statue wearin' high heels.
Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn.
A dinosaur Victrola list'ning to Buck Owens,
Doo doo doo Lookin' out my back door.

--- Credence Clearwater Revival. Lookin' Our My Back Door

Palin's rap sheet of spreading widely-debunked claims and conservative misinformation is as long as they come. The newest member of the Fox News troupe has mislead the public on a variety of subjects in recent months, including President Obama, health reform, climate change and her positions as Governor of Alaska. Palin's revisionist history also includes using unions to claim she's pro-worker (without doing anything to actually represent union interests).

As one of the top conservative media personalities pushing the bounds of acceptable political discussion farther and farther away from reality, we think it's high time Palin got the recognition she deserves--and we salute you, Fox News, for being the outlet to give it to her!

A gold mine of credibility, Palin is not. Her death panel ramblings won her the "Lie of the Year" from Politifact.com. Relive some of the moments that elevated Palin's fear-mongering status to platinum with Media Matters' "Greatest Hits" compilation of the former Alaskan Governor's most absurd falsehoods and distortions within the political discourse.

Watch It:

HT:SEIU

The latest issue of WorldNetDaily's "Whistleblower" magazine exposes how the Obama administration and the Democrats are intentionally creating crises so that they can turn America into a "full-fledged socialist state" .... apparently by using their omnipotent, God-like powers to control the weather: 

HT: Right Wing Watch

2008's Political Story Of the Year:

Leads to 2009's Political Lie Of The Year:

In advance of Sarah Palin’s stops in Ohio tomorrow please find below everything you need to know about Going Rogue – a memoir that has been received as 1) political payback for Palin’s rivals that adds to the tabloid nature of her profile rather than provide a display of substantive policy chops that would reset her ability to be taken as a serious leader; and 2) substantively more fiction than fact compounding the credibility problems she earned during the 2008 campaign.

These factors are reflected in recent polling which shows extraordinary disapproval numbers and small minorities who feel she's qualified to be President. The sensational nature of Palin's book continues to dominate news cycles - and does so to the detriment of the Republican Party.

Combined with her dismal polling numbers and Republican willingness to cede the party to her and her polarizing tea party following, the political impact of her re-emergence, spells political disaster for the GOP going into 2010 and beyond.

Republican President Richard M. Nixon's deep bow to communist Leader Mao Zedong in 1972.

Watch a montage of Fox's absurd attacks about President Obama's bow to the Emperor of Japan, along with the video and images they ignored:

As shown not only did Presidents Nixon and Eisenhower bow to foreign leaders (Nixon to the Emperor of Japan, Eisenhower to Charles De Gaulle), but President Bush actually held hands with and kissed Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. 

Now we have Republican Nixon bowing to Chairman Mao . . . I'm sure we can expect an apology from FOX any day now.

House Republicans say they'll make Democrats feel the political heat for President Obama's decision to try Sept. 11 attack plotters in U.S. civilian courts by trying to force a vote on a bill to block those trials.

Republicans will launch a discharge petition -- which means if a majority of House members sign on, then the bill would automatically be brought to the floor for a vote, despite the objections of Democratic leaders who control the chamber's schedule.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, Ohio Republican, said the Obama administration's decision to move 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others suspected of planning the Sept. 11 attacks from the Guantanamo Bay detention site to civilian courts in the United States shows Democrats are "out of touch."

"It really begs the question of what is the administration's overarching strategy to fight the terrorists and keep Americans safe. We haven't seen that overarching strategy yet," Mr. Boehner said.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/17/republi... /

What are the Republicans really afraid of?  That a discussion of how Khalid was tortured 183 times will come up in court and the American people will be reminded of the failures of the Republicans and the Bush administration in combatting terror along with their complete undermining of the Constitution and our founding principles of the rule of law.

 Sean Hannity not only lied about the number of people that attended a healthcare protest in the nation's capital, but even used false video footage to prove his claim. Michelle Bachmann was being interviewed by Hannity and claimed there were 25,000 to 40,000 people that showed up to the anti-healthcare reform rally.

According to Stewart, the Washington Post actually stated only 10,000 people attended.To prove their point a clip was shown that displayed all the people that were in attendance. There was one small problem with this however. The actual clip was from the teabagger protest on 9/12.

Watch It:

Last night, Fox's Sean Hannity owned up to erroneously airing footage of the 9/12 protest when talking about the smaller tea party protest last week in Washington.

"Mr. Stewart, you were right," Hannity said. "We apologize."

Watch It:

Think Progress

Republicans have been insisting for months that Democrats are shoving a secret bill down the throats of the American public. The health reform legislation “should be posted online for 72 hours so members and the American people get a chance to see what’s in these bills,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) told Fox News. “But it seems to me that Democrat leaders want to rush these bills through Congress before anybody has a chance to read them.”

In fact, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) “has repeatedly pledged to Republicans that the health bill and any manager’s amendment would be posted online for at least 72 hours before the House votes,” and he promised again this week.

At a press conference this morning, a reporter turned the tables on Boehner and asked whether he’d post the GOP plan for 72 hours. Boehner declined to make such a pledge:

QUESTION: Will the Republicans put their alternative online for 72 hours as well?

BOEHNER: Uh, we’ll uh, we’ll have our ideas ready. Don’t worry.

Why won’t Bohner post the GOP plan? Because he doesn’t have one. Later in the press conference, this minor detail was revealed when a reporter pressed Boehner for a GOP alternative plan:

QUESTION: Is it your plan to have one Republican alternative that you all would get behind and endorse?

BOHNER: We have a number of ideas that we would like to proffer in this process, and we’re not quite sure how the majority intends to proceed. And so until we understand how they intend to proceed, it’s pretty difficult for us to have a solid plan.

Watch it:

See Also:

John Boehner Meet Your Consitiuents Who Support The Public Option (SlideShow)

While Boehner Sucks Garlic Milkshakes GOP Provides No Health Care Bill

This is the kind of stuff that they actually believe in WingNut World.

Last week at the How To Take America Back Conference, Washington Times correspondent Frank Gaffney told a crowd that he believes President Obama shares an agenda with the Muslim Brotherhood, an historically violent Jihadist group whose stated goal is the destruction of western civilization and worldwide Islamic law.

Watch It:

See Also:

Noe Conduit Ohio Blogger Maggie Thurber Shown In Viral Video "Americans For Prosperity, But Not Chicago"

Since "pull the plug on Grandma" has been debunked, the Sarah Palin of Congress, crazy Michele Bachmann flips the scare tactic to health care reform will abort your grandchildren.  And parents, you'll never know if your daughters had an abortion at school that day.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) spoke to Congress about "school based health clinics" (SBHC), labeling the clinics discussed in current House health care legislation as "sex clinics."

The conservative congresswoman suggested that if health care reform passes, the nation's schools might begin offering abortions to students. Bachman's interpretation of the health care reform bill holds that the legislation is designed to bring Planned Parenthood into educational facilities. According to Bachmann,

The bill goes on to say what's going to go on -- comprehensive primary health services, physicals, treatment of minor acute medical conditions, referrals to follow-up for specialty care -- is that abortion? Does that mean that someone's 13 year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have their abortion, be back and go home on the school bus that night? Mom and dad are never the wiser.

Watch It:

(i) "SBHC services will be provides in accordance with Federal, State, and local laws governing-- (I) obtaining parental or guardian consent; and (II) patient privacy and student records, including section 264 of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and section 444 of the General Education Provision Act;

The concept of "school based health care clinics" was introduced under the notion that students achieve higher academic performance when they are healthy and receive adequate medical attention. According to the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care, if implemented SBHCs would give schools access to physicians "so students avoid health-related absense and get support to succeed in the classroom."

The nonpartisan fact-checking group PolitiFact rips into Bachmann's claim, rating it a "Pants On Fire" falsehood.

We see no language in the three main versions of the bill that would allow school-based clinics, which have a long history of providing basic health services to underprivileged students, to provide abortions. Nor would the clinics even be new they have been around for three decades. So we rate the claim Pants on Fire!

Watch It:

If you want to know what will happen if Ohio allows casinos, take a look at the empty storefronts in Niagara Falls. 

Supporters of Issue 3 want you to think that it will create 34,000 new jobs. Here’s what they are keeping from you: Its passage will eliminate some existing jobs.

The casinos will not help Ohio, They will hurt Ohio.

Today’s Gannett newspapers report that it could hasten the demise of horse racing and cost Ohio 12,000 to 13,000 jobs.

From the article:

With casino competition -- and without the right to install video lottery terminals at tracks -- the Racing Commission estimates that no more than two of those tracks could survive. They are Beulah Park outside Columbus and Northfield Park outside Cleveland.

"If you were to close down this industry, and lose 12,000 or 13,000 jobs, that's more than closing down an auto plant," said Tom Zaino, a former state tax commissioner under Gov. Bob Taft and a member of the racing commission, which opposes Issue 3.

Across America, when casinos have moved in, existing businesses have moved out.

That’s what Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks meant when she told Columbus Business First:

“What tends to happen from what I know is there is a giant sucking sound. People stay in the casino and spend their money there. Who gets rich? The casino operator.”

Watch It:

Alert! This is not the old Second City TV.

This is not satire.  This is real!

Currently running on TV in 7 southern states!

Here's a highlight reel put together by Talking Points Memo that gives you a good idea of what the full infomercial is like and about.

From TPM: Birthermercial Highlight Reel!

Much more on this story at TPM

Health insurance reform opponents continue to spread myths about America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, including the notion that Republicans are fighting against health insurance reform to protect seniors from Medicare changes.

In fact, the House bill improves care and benefits under Medicare and extends Medicare’s solvency. But in the hypocrisy file: over the years, Congressional Republicans have made no attempt to hide their attempts to gut Medicare – from peddling privatization to ramming through a flawed prescription drug benefit written for and by the drug industry. As Vice President Joe Biden said yesterday:

“They [Congressional Republicans] were nowhere to be heard in the ’80s and ’90s when we were trying to protect Medicare…I find it absolutely fascinating these guys who wanted to cut Medicare before, these guys who didn’t like it in the first place, are now out there telling you that this is the best thing that ever happened since sliced bread.”

MYTH: Congressional Republicans are trying to kill health insurance reform to protect seniors and Medicare.

FACT: In April, 80 percent of House Republicans voted for Rep. Paul Ryan’s Republican Budget substitute amendment, which would have essentially ended Medicare as we know it by turning it into a fixed voucher system where seniors would be forced to find health insurance on the private market.

AP reported (4/1/09):

For their part, House Republicans are offering an alternative that eventually would end Medicare as it is presently known.

National Journal reported (8/28/09):

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s pledge this week to ‘protect Medicare’ might have been more convincing had it not come five months after nearly four-fifths of House Republicans voted to literally end the program as we know it for all Americans younger than 55.

FACT: Nothing in this bill would reduce Medicare benefits to seniors. In fact, the bill would make improvements in Medicare benefits, lower costs, and preserve choice for America’s seniors while at the same time achieving new efficiencies in Medicare; expanding authority to fight waste, fraud and abuse; and eliminating the wasteful Medicare Advantage subsidies to private insurance companies—money that can and should go back to seniors’ care.

In addition, the $540 billion in Medicare savings over 10 years in the House bill is a gross number. That figure does not take into account the bill’s new spending of $304 billion to improve Medicare benefits and health care for seniors, including the following:

Lowers drug costs by gradually closing the “donut hole” for prescription drug reimbursement

Preserves choice of doctors by eliminating a 20 percent cut in doctor reimbursements

Lowers costs by eliminating copayments for preventive services

Improves low-income subsidy programs, including under the part D program, to help ensure Medicare is affordable for those with low and modest incomes

Computerizes medical records so seniors won’t have to take the same test over and over or relay their entire medical history every time they see a new provider

Expands the medical workforce so seniors will have more doctors to choose from and an easier time getting an appointment

Develops new practices to improve quality such as the new Center for Quality Improvement that will identify best practices are distributed widely

Lengthens the solvency of Medicare by five years

Learn more about how America’s Affordable Health Choices Act will strengthen Medicare>>

Learn more about how America’s Affordable Health Choices Act will improve the Medicare prescription drug benefit>>

Cross posted From The Gavel

Health insurance reform opponents, including House Republican Leader John Boehner, continue to spread myths about America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, including the ridiculous myth that the Obama Administration has issued a “gag order” on insurance companies telling seniors how health insurance reform will affect them. That is not true. What the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) did do, is instruct health insurance companies to stop spreading misleading information about the possible impact of reform on seniors—conjecture not supported by independent news reporting and, potentially, a violation of both federal regulations and the law.

MYTH: The Obama Administration has issued a gag order on insurance companies telling seniors how health insurance reform affects them.

FACT: Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) instructed health insurance companies offering Medicare Advantage plans and services to stop spreading misinformation – specifically in mailings and company web sites – about the impact of health insurance reform to Medicare enrollees:

MEDICARE ISSUES NEW GUIDANCE TO INSURANCE COMPANIES ON MEDICARE MAILINGS
GUIDANCE COMES AFTER HUMANA DISTRIBUTED POTENTIALLY MISLEADING MATERIALS

Medicare today called on Medicare-contracted health insurance and prescription drug plans to suspend potentially misleading mailings to beneficiaries about health care and insurance reform. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently asked Humana, Inc. to end similar mailings. Humana has agreed to do so.

“We are concerned that the materials Humana sent to our beneficiaries may violate Medicare rules by appearing to contain Medicare Advantage and prescription drug benefit information, which must be submitted to CMS for review” said Jonathan Blum, acting director of CMS’ Center for Drug and Health Plan Choices. “We also are asking that no other plan sponsors are mailing similar materials while we investigate whether a potential violation has occurred.”

Humana is one of a number of private health plans that contracts with CMS to offer health care services and drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries as part of the Medicare Advantage and Part D programs. CMS learned that Humana had been contacting enrollees in one or more of its plans and, in mailings that CMS obtained, made claims that current health care reform legislation affecting Medicare could hurt Medicare beneficiaries. The message from Humana urges enrollees to contact their congressional representatives to protest the actions referenced in the letter.

Continue reading>>

CMS issued the directive because of the likelihood that seniors and people with disabilities would believe this information to be “official communication about the Medicare Advantage program” rather than the opinion of the health insurance company. Furthermore, CMS indicated this kind of communication may be a violation of both federal regulations and federal law because these companies were misusing official Medicare enrollee data to lobby against legislation.

Beyond the CMS directive, insurance companies earning taxpayer dollars were spending money to lobby against specific legislative initiatives—using claims about Medicare cuts which have been widely discredited by independent news media and fact checkers.

House Minority Leader John Boehner admitted today on Meet The Press that what he's been saying all along about socialism and the President being a socialist was a lie and nothing more than fear-mongering and attempting to scare the public for political gain.

Watch It:

As usual President Obama adressesd the whole issue with humor.

Today on CNN’s State of the Union, the President responded to the fear-mongering from conservative leaders that he is a socialist, stating:

“You know, I’m amused. I can’t tell you how many foreign leaders who are heads of center-right governments say to me, I don’t understand why people would call you socialist, in my country, you’d be considered a conservative.”

HT: Think Progress

I guess the right was embarrassed by the actual numbers that showed up at their relatively small "protest" in DC.

Tea Party protesters trying to tout the size of their march on Washington last weekend have been passing around a photo of a packed National Mall. 

To bolster countless claims on blogs and Facebook, many posted a photograph that showed a gargantuan crowd sprawling from Capitol Hill down the National Mall to the Washington Monument.

But it turns out the photo is more than 10 years old, apparently taken during a 1997 Promise Keepers rally.

Pete Piringer, public affairs officer for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Department:

"It was an impressive crowd," he said. But after marching down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol the crowd "only filled the Capitol grounds, maybe up to Third Street," he said.

Yet the photo showed the crowd sprawling far beyond that to the Washington Monument, which is bordered by 15th and and 17th Streets.

There's another big problem with the photograph: it doesn't include the National Museum of the American Indian, a building located at the corner of Fourth St. and Independence Ave. that opened on Sept. 14, 2004. (Looking at the photograph, the building should be in the upper right hand corner of the National Mall, next to the Air and Space Museum.) That means the picture was taken before the museum opened exactly five years ago. So clearly the photo doesn't show the "tea party" crowd from the Sept. 12 protest.

"I've seen bigger crowds at Montreal Expos games, but I still wouldn't fake a photo just to justify your predictions of millions descending on Washington," said one gleeful Democratic media strategist. "This is grade-A stupid and just plays into the argument that these were astroturf protests to begin with.

They've always brought the noise, but the question that was supposed to be answered this weekend was, could they bring the numbers? In that respect this was an unmitigated disaster."

As ProgressOhio  reported on the day of the event, the right absolutely has gotten caught widely inflating the numbers of how many Fox News suckers actually attended their relatively small "protest" in DC.

It seems it happens every September 11.  Republicans head to their email lists and send around chain emails that are nothing but lies and smears.

I've gotten this one every year for the last 6 years in a row.

Fw: Do You Remember 1987?

Essentially the claim made in the email is that during the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings, Oliver North warned Congress that Osama bin Laden was "the most evil person alive" and that "an assassin team [should] be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth."

Those that do not know history are doomed to repeat it

The terrorist North mentioned in his testimony was not Osama bin Laden. It was Abu Nidal. However. to the extent that bin Laden was known to the western world in 1987, it was not as a "terrorist" but as one of the U.S.-backed "freedom fighters" participating in the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden's hatred of the U.S. and conversion to "terrorist" status is not believed to have come about until the Gulf War of 1990-91, when he was outspokenly critical of Saudi Arabian dependence upon the U.S. military and denounced U.S. support of a "corrupt, materialist, and irreligious" Saudi monarchy. (The Saudi Arabian government stripped bin Laden of his citizenship in 1994 for his funding of militant fundamentalist Islamic groups.)

Oh and idiots:

Senator Al Gore of Tennessee was not a member of the United States Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition and therefore did not take part in the questioning of any witnesses before the Committee.

For 3 years I sent long replies back with the facts and copied everyone on the original distribution list, but the mail continues to arrive every year. This isn't teabaggers . . . the cc list includes doctors, dentists, lawyers and small business people. You know not necessarily nutjobs, but "real Republicans" . . .

Read the full email is below:.

The nastiness of August reached from the nation's town halls into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday as President Barack Obama tried to move his health care plan forward.

South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" after Obama had talked about illegal immigrants.

You should be ashamed Sir.  All Republicans should be ashamed.

Apologize! Apologize Now!

Congresss should censure this idiot tomorrow first thing!

Watch It:

Unlike the $2.48 trillion tax cut legislation enacted by President Bush and most of the current Congressional Republicans, health insurance reform will not increase the deficit.

On July 17, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed that the health reform provisions of the House bill will be fully paid for:

CBO estimated that the cost of the bill’s reforms was $1.042 trillion over 10 years, while the bill’s cost savings and revenues totaled $1.048 trillion. Since then, amendments to the bill have trimmed the cost even more.

Furthermore, contrary to the claim that the public health insurance option “costs $1 trillion,” the public option actually has NO cost to taxpayers – with the bill requiring that the costs of operating the public option must be fully covered by premiums.

The reforms will be fully paid for through a combination of almost $500 billion in net Medicare and Medicaid reforms, cutting waste and inefficiency as recommended by the non-partisan MedPAC to strengthen the Medicare trust fund, and curbing excessive profits private insurance companies are taking which divert care from seniors —and more than $500 billion in revenue raised through a tax surcharge on the wealthiest 1.2 percent.

The cost of reform does not include funding the “Sustainable Growth Rate” fix for Medicare doctors’ reimbursement rates because it is not new and not subject to pay-as-you-go rules. For eight years, the Republican-controlled Congress did nothing to provide a funding source for these payments—so it’s another budget headache the GOP left behind.

But we cannot reduce the deficit without getting health care costs under control. As White House Budget Director Peter Orszag stated:

The evidence is clear that the biggest threat to our fiscal future is health care costs. If health care costs grow at the same rate over the next four decades as they did over the previous four, Medicare and Medicaid spending will go from about 5 percent of GDP to about 20 percent by 2050. That was about the size of the entire federal government last year…The fiscal importance of health care reform is indisputable.

The House bill contains numerous provisions that will bring down health care costs over the long term. The reforms in the House bill – which will both contain cost growth and improve care – include:

Requiring the nonpartisan Institute of Medicine to submit specific recommendations to Congress on how to better have Medicare and Medicaid reimburse providers for the quality of care (rather than the quantity) – with these recommendations to be voted up or down.

Promoting Accountable Care Organizations that provide for hospitals and doctors working together to manage and coordinate care;

Creating incentives to reduce preventable hospital readmissions that reward transition planning and coordination for patients; and

Establishing pilot projects to test “bundling” payment methodology under which one payment would be made – rather than separate payments – to the combination of health care providers involved in a patient’s care.

Think of the GOP's phony concerns about the cost of the current healthcare bill and compare it with the GOP's prescription drug entitlement that Rove rammed through the Congress when the GOP held total power. The costs then were about eight times as great as the proposed costs now. But that was a Republican measure and so it doesn't somehow count as evidence of fiscal irresponsibility. But Nancy Pelosi only has to raise an eye-brow and the alarms go off.

When Republicans Fear Monger Over Health Reform And The Deficit Remember This:

The last Republican who left the office of the presidency with the federal public debt as a percentage of GDP less than when he entered was Richard Nixon (FY 1975). The last Republican who left the office of the presidency with a federal deficit less than 2.7% of GDP was Dwight Eisenhower (FY 1961).

Since WW II no Democratic president has ever left office with the federal public debt as a percentage of GDP more than when he entered. And since WW II no Democratic president has ever left office with a federal deficit more than 2.6% of GDP.

We already have at least one party of fiscal responsibility.

It's called the Democratic Party.

Health insurance reform opponents continue to spread myths about America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. Republicans, in particular, are showing a recent convert’s zeal for reducing the deficit by claiming we cannot afford health insurance reform now because of the size of the federal deficit. But the facts demonstrate that not only are Republicans the wrong ones to trust on fiscal discipline, health insurance reform is the single biggest way to improve both the long-term fiscal health of our nation and the competitiveness of American businesses in a global economy.

And as some in the news media continue to incorrectly report that the House bill “will increase the deficit by $1 trillion” – or even worse “the public option costs $1 trillion” – the facts and some perspective are needed.

First, the perspective — a new report by the independent Citizens for Tax Justice found:

The tax legislation enacted under President George W. Bush from 2001 through 2006 will cost $2.48 trillion over the 2001-2010 period. This includes the revenue loss of $2.11 trillion that results directly from the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy as well as the $379 billion in additional interest payments on the national debt that we must make since the tax cuts were deficit-financed.

MYTH 1: There is no health care crisis

CLAIM: The health care system currently works fine, and only a purportedly small number of uninsured people would benefit from reform.

• RUSH LIMBAUGH: "There really isn't a crisis in health care in this country. The crisis in health care that -- if you wanna say, that does exist -- is the fear that a major illness or catastrophe could wipe you out, which isn't gonna change. In fact, the odds of you being wiped out by a catastrophe or accident once the government gets started running this stuff is greater than if the private sector -- but day-to-day, there's no health care crisis in this country. You can get it. So, it isn't about health care, per se. This is just about gaining control, taking money, and controlling people's lives, and wiping out Republicans -- a nice cherry on top." [Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show, 6/18/09]

• STEVE DOOCY: "Currently, 90 percent of all Americans have got some sort of health care coverage, which means they are effectively blowing up the system for 5 percent. Now, the 5 percent, you gotta worry about them -- you gotta worry about everybody who doesn't have it. But is it worth all of this for 5 percent?" [Fox News' Fox & Friends, 7/30/09]

REALITY: Roughly 25 million Americans were underinsured in 2007. According to Cathy Schoen, senior vice president of The Commonwealth Fund, "From 2003 to 2007, the number of adults who were insured all year but were underinsured increased by 60 percent. Based on those who incur high out-of-pocket costs relative to their income not counting premiums despite having coverage all year, an estimated 25 million adults under age 65 were underinsured in 2007." [Testimony from Schoen before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, 2/24/09]

The underinsured do not receive adequate care and face financial hardship. Schoen explained that the "experiences" of the underinsured were "similar" to those of the uninsured, noting that "over half of the underinsured and two thirds of the uninsured went without recommended treatment, follow-up care, medications or did not see a doctor when sick. Half of both groups faced financial stress, including medical debt." [Schoen testimony, 2/24/09]

Insurance companies currently rescind policies when their insured customers need treatment. Insurance companies restrict or deny coverage by rescinding health insurance policies on the grounds that customers had undisclosed pre-existing conditions. On June 16, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee held a hearing exploring this practice, with the goal of examining "the practice of 'post-claims underwriting,' which occurs when insurance companies cancel individual health insurance policies after providers submit claims for medical services rendered." The committee also released a memorandum finding that three major American insurance companies rescinded 19,776 policies for over $300 million in savings over five years and that even that number "significantly undercounts the total number of rescissions" by the companies.

Currently, insurance companies deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen wrote in a May 14 CNN.com article, "According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 21 percent of people who apply for health insurance on their own get turned down, charged a higher price or offered a plan that excludes coverage for their pre-existing condition. ... The health insurance industry doesn't deny that people are rejected or charged higher premiums because of pre-existing conditions."

CLAIM: Progressive health care reform proposals will introduce a system of "rationing" into American medicine.

• SEAN HANNITY: "We're gonna have a government rationing body that tells women with breast cancer, 'You're dead.' It's a death sentence." [Fox News' Hannity, 6/19/09]

• MICHELLE MALKIN: "Big Nanny Democrats want to ration health care for everyone in America -- except those who break our immigration laws." [Malkin column, 7/22/09]

REALITY: Insurance companies already ration care. Insurance companies acknowledge that they ration care, restricting coverage of procedures and tests like MRIs and CAT scans and denying coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.

Sanjay Gupta: "I can tell you, as a practicing physician ... who deals with this on a daily basis, rationing does occur all the time." As Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, explained: "[P]eople always say, 'Is there going to be rationed care?' And I can tell you, as a practicing physician, as someone who deals with this on a daily basis, rationing does occur all the time. I mean, I was in the clinic this past week. And I -- you know, at the end of clinic, I get all this paperwork that basically says, 'Justify why you're doing such and such procedure. Justify why you're ordering such and such test.' And if the justification is inadequate, the answer comes back, 'Well, that's not going to be covered.' Which basically is saying that the patient is going to have to pay for it on their own, which is, in essence, is what rationing is, in so many ways." [CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, 8/12/09]

Insurance companies ration care by rescinding coverage. As former senior executive at CIGNA health insurance company Wendell Potter explained in June 24 Senate testimony, insurance companies restrict or deny coverage by rescinding health insurance policies on the grounds that people had undisclosed pre-existing conditions. President Obama recently cited one such example, noting that "[a] woman from Texas was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, was scheduled for a double mastectomy. Three days before surgery ... the insurance company canceled the policy, in part because she forgot to declare a case of acne. ... By the time she had her insurance reinstated, the cancer had more than doubled in size."

CLAIM: House health care reform bill mandates end-of-life counseling that will pressure seniors to end their lives.

• BETSY McCAUGHEY: "And one of the most shocking things I found in this bill, and there were many, is on Page 425, where the Congress would make it mandatory -- absolutely require -- that every five years, people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner, how to decline nutrition, how to decline being hydrated, how to go in to hospice care. And by the way, the bill expressly says that if you get sick somewhere in that five-year period -- if you get a cancer diagnosis, for example -- you have to go through that session again. All to do what's in society's best interest or your family's best interest and cut your life short. These are such sacred issues of life and death. Government should have nothing to do with this." [FredThompsonShow.com, interview archives, 7/16/09]

• HANNITY: "Now, she [McCaughey] actually uncovered in this bill a particularly outrageous provision -- and by the way, there will be more to come in the Obamacare plan. According to McCaughey, she's saying under the House provision and the House version, perfectly healthy senior citizens are going to be forced to undergo, quote, 'end of life counseling,' apparently to encourage them to check out before their time is up." [ABC Radio Networks and Premiere Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show, 7/17/09]

REALITY: Advance care planning is not mandatory in the House health care bill. Section 1233 of America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 -- which includes "Page 425" -- amends the Social Security Act to ensure that advance care planning will be covered if a patient requests it from a qualified care provider [America's Affordable Health Choices Act, Sec. 1233]. According to an analysis of the bill produced by the three relevant House committees, the section "[p]rovides coverage for consultation between enrollees and practitioners to discuss orders for life-sustaining treatment. Instructs CMS to modify 'Medicare & You' handbook to incorporate information on end-of-life planning resources and to incorporate measures on advance care planning into the physician's quality reporting initiative." [waysandmeans.house.gov, accessed 7/29/09]

PolitiFact: McCaughey's claim that seniors would be encouraged to end their lives "is an outright distortion." "McCaughey incorrectly states that the bill would require Medicare patients to have these counseling sessions and she is suggesting that the government is somehow trying to interfere with a very personal decision. And her claim that the sessions would 'tell [seniors] how to end their life sooner' is an outright distortion. Rather, the sessions are an option for elderly patients who want to learn more about living wills, health care proxies and other forms of end-of-life planning. McCaughey isn't just wrong, she's spreading a ridiculous falsehood." [PolitiFact.com, 7/23/09]

CLAIM: Health care reform would establish a "death panel."

• GLENN BECK: "So, why is there no more discussion than there is on Sarah Palin and what she said over the weekend that there would be ... [a] death panel for her son Trig? That's quite a statement. I believe it to be true, but that's quite a statement." [Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program, 8/10/09]

• BRIAN KILMEADE: "[E]veryone's talking about seniors, and they're talking about the middle class and affordable health care. If the upper class is paying for the next two classes, and are seniors going to be in front of a death panel? And then just as you think, 'OK, that's ridiculous,' then you realize there's provisions in there that seniors in the last lap of their life will be sitting there going to a panel, possibly discussing what the best thing for them is." [Fox & Friends, 8/10/09]

REALITY: "Death panel" claims have been conclusively discredited. In one of more than 40 media reports debunking claims of euthanasia and "death panels," PolitiFact wrote: "We've looked at the inflammatory claims that the health care bill encourages euthanasia. It doesn't. There's certainly no 'death board' that determines the worthiness of individuals to receive care. ... [Palin] said that the Democratic plan will ration care and 'my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care.' Palin's statement sounds more like a science fiction movie (Soylent Green, anyone?) than part of an actual bill before Congress. We rate her statement Pants on Fire!" [PolitiFact.com, 8/10/09]

Just before Pamela Pilger shouted "Heil Hitler" to a Jewish man who spoke in favor of health care reform, she told an interviewer why she's against Health Insurance reform.

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Setting aside her claim of holding "biblical values" and the fact that her husband works 3 jobs and doesn't have health insurance, she tells two documented falsehoods as reasons why she does not support health care reform:

Lie Number 1:

"It doesn't need to be taken over by the government, for sure"

“... there is no credible way to look at what has been proposed by the president or any congressional committee and conclude that these will result in a government takeover of the health-care system. That is a flat-out lie whose only purpose is to scare the public and stop political conversation.”

[Steven Pearlstein, The Washington Post, 8/7/09] 

Lie Number 2 :

"We do not need to support Illegal Aliens."

Section 152, which includes a generic nondiscrimination clause saying that insurers may not discriminate with regard to "personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services."

The section says nothing about "non-US citizens" or immigrants, legal or otherwise. In fact, the legislation specifically states that "undocumented aliens" will not be eligible for credits to help them buy health insurance, in Section 246 on page 143.

[No free health care for illegal immigrants in the health bill Politifact July 28th, 2009]

It's time to set the record straight -- and, more importantly, expose the special interests and partisan attack organizations behind the lies and misinformation. 

The Democrat-backed health care reform plan "will require (Americans) to subsidize abortion with their hard-earned tax dollars."

John Boehner on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 in an op-ed for National Review

The fact that several versions of the health care reform bill are floating around Congress makes it difficult to say with certainty what the final plan will or will not include. But while it appears likely the plan would allow for the coverage of abortions, we don't see anything in the plans that would require taxpayers to foot the bill for that.

In fact, in a key version of the bill- the one passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee - members went to great pains to include an amendment to ensure that federal money is not used for abortion coverage. Again, things could change as the health reform package works its way through Congress, but for now, we don't see anything to support Boehner's claim that taxpayers would subsidize abortions. And so we rule his statement False.

PolitiFact

Fact: The nonpartisan CBO found America’s Affordable Health Choices Act is deficit neutral.

The CBO released estimates confirming that the health insurance reform policies of America’s Affordable Health Choices Act are deficit-neutral over the 10-year budget window — even producing a $6 billion surplus. CBO estimated that the cost of the bill’s insurance reforms was $1.042 trillion, while the bill’s cost savings and revenues totaled $1.048 trillion:

CBO estimated that these reforms will provide affordable coverage for 97 percent of Americans two years after the program starts.

In addition, the President has said:

I’ve also pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade. And I mean it… [health insurance reform] will be paid for.

DEMS GO ON OFFENSIVE AGAINST BOEHNER

Over the weekend, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told Fox News that the stimulus package hasn't delivered for his state. "In Ohio, the infrastructure dollars that were sent there months ago, there hasn't been a contract let, to my knowledge," he said, as part of his criticism of the recovery efforts.

The comments became problematic when they were easily proven false -- dozens of infrastructure projects have been launched through the stimulus, at a cost of nearly $84 million. Complicating matters, Boehner doesn't think infrastructure dollars can help the economy in Ohio anyway, though he's had some trouble sticking to his talking points.

Watch It:

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Basically the finance/insurance/real estate sector invested around $6 billion dollars ($2,215,520,643 in legalized bribes, or what our elite encourages us to call "political donations") and the balance in indirect bribes or "lobbying."

And although one of the worst and most corrupt handmaidens of these banksters-- Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH- $3,045,809 in bankster bribes)-- insists there was not only no quid pro quo that could describe the billions spent by banksters and the deregulation of the financial industry that allowed them to loot the economy, but that the financial industry wasn't even deregulated!

View Video

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, allowed the financial sector to "modernize" all the way back to the roaring twenties, the pre-FDR era of no regulation.

It repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which had kept investment banks, commercial banks and insurance all separate-- the opposite of what outfits like CitiGroup, Bank of America and, of course, A.I.G. are now all about.

John "The Bankster" Boehner voted for it.

Noe conduits fined for campaign gifts; penalties tied to '04 Bush donations

More than three years after a scandal that rocked the Ohio Republican Party, current and former officeholders have been hit with hefty fines from the Federal Elections Commission - all for helping Tom Noe gain prominence in Washington.

A current Toledo city councilman, a former Lucas County commissioner, and a former Toledo mayor are among seven "Noe conduits" who were fined thousands of dollars for contributing money to the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign. The contributions had been given to them by Noe.

Ms. Thurber and her husband, Sam, were each fined $9,000 for receiving a $3,750 check from Noe for a joint contribution of $3,900 from her and her husband.

See Also: Maggie Thurber's Strange Bedfellows: Tom Noe and the Payday Lenders

Ms. Thurber is currently running for "Best Political Coverage" in the 2008 WebBlog Awards.  

Oh come on . . .

"The truth was revealed there in that report that showed there was no unlawful nor unethical activity on my part."

Finding Number One

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.

Today, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America released its congressional scorecard for the 110th Congress, and awarded McCain a grade of “D” for his votes against veterans’ priorities. The grade makes McCain one of only four Senators to fall on IAVA’s “D List” — and marks a repeat performance for him, after receiving a “D” for his 109th congressional voting record as well.

IAVA hammered McCain for refusing to co-sponsor Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) 21st Century G.I. Bill. In fact, the IAVA highlighted the weaker alternative proposed by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — and endorsed by McCain — as “an effort to derail the popular and bipartisan” GI Bill proposed by Webb. “Thankfully,” the IAVA writes, “the Senate voted forcefully, 55-42, to kill” the Graham-McCain proposal.

IAVA’s score adds to other groups who have criticized McCain’s abysmal record on veterans’ issues. McCain has received a 20 percent vote rating from the Disabled Veterans of America, while the Vietnam Veterans of America noted McCain had “voted against us” in 15 “key votes.”

During the first presidential debate, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) repeatedly emphasized his love of veterans — and their fondness for him in return. “I’ll take care of them. And they know I’ll take care of them,” he said. McCain frequently exaggerates his level of support for and from veterans groups, claiming to have “received the highest award from literally every veteran’s organization in America” and to have “a perfect voting record” on veterans’ issues.

Watch It:

Original Content Think Progress

One Week After McCain Claims Vets ‘Know I’ll Take Care Of Them,’ IAVA Gives Him A ‘D’

VetVoice's Brandon Friedman has a comprehensive look at McCain's entire "miserable record" on veterans' issues.

During the debates, John McCain told a story that underscored the need for accountability in public officials. Before the Normandy invasion, he said, Dwight Eisenhower wrote two letters. One praising the troops for their success, and the other a letter of resignation from the Army taking responsibility for the failure. In fact, neither of Ike’s letters mentioned resignation. A small error, but a telling one for a campaign that misstates a lot of things. The error was widely noted, and you would think McCain would stop repeating the false story. But no! Here he was this morning on Morning Joe:

Watch It:

Huffington Post Reports:

Sunday morning on Meet The Press, McCain chief strategist Steve Schmidt trotted out one of John McCain's tired old lies, the false claim that McCain had urged President Bush to fire Donald Rumsfeld.

The truth is that John McCain never urged Bush to fire Rumsfeld, nor did he call for his resignation.

Earlier this year, McCain aide Brian Rogers told the Washington Post:

"He did not call for his resignation," said the campaign's Brian Rogers. "He always said that's the president's prerogative."

Although McCain did distance himself from Rumsfeld towards the end of Rumsfeld's tenure, McCain has also heaped praise on him, saying that Rumsfeld and Cheney formed "the strongest" national security team in American history.

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Newsweek and New York Times report that John McCain has been caught lying about his campaign manager's lobbying on behalf of Fannie Mae.

McCain said that Rick Davis had long ago severed ties with Fannie Mae. Not true. His lobbying firm has received $15,000 per month each month until...last month.

Watch it:

McCain camp criticism rife with errors

Sen. John McCain’s top campaign aides convened a conference call today to complain of being called “liars.” They pressed the media to scrutinize specific elements of Sen. Barack Obama’s record.

But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy.

The errors in McCain strategist Steve Schmidt’s charges against Obama and Sen. Joe Biden were particularly notable because they seemed unnecessary. Schmidt repeatedly gilded the lily: He exaggerated the Biden family's already problematic ties to the credit card industry; Obama’s embarrassing relationship with a 1960s radical; and an Obama supporter’s over-the-top attack on Sarah Palin when — in each case — the truth would have been damaging enough.

“Any time the Obama campaign is criticized at any level, the critics are immediately derided as liars,” Schmidt told reporters.

But as he went on to list a series of stories he thought reporters should be writing about Obama and Biden, in almost every instance he got the details wrong.

Read The Full Story

Exclusive: New Doubts Over Palin's Troopergate Claims

Internal Government Document Contradicts Sarah Palin, Campaign

An internal government document obtained by ABC News appears to contradict Sarah Palin's most recent explanation for why she fired her public safety chief, the move which prompted the now-contested state probe into "Troopergate."

[snip]

The last straw," her lawyer argued, came when he planned a trip to Washington, D.C., to seek federal funds for an aggressive anti-sexual-violence program. The project, expected to cost from $10 million to $20 million a year for five years, would have been the first of its kind in Alaska, which leads the nation in reported forcible rape.

The McCain-Palin campaign echoed the charge in a press release it distributed Monday, concurrent with Palin's legal filing. "Mr. Monegan persisted in planning to make the unauthorized lobbying trip to D.C.," the release stated.

But the governor's staff authorized the trip, according to an internal travel document from the Department of Public Safety, released Friday in response to an open records request. The document, a state travel authorization form, shows that Palin's chief of staff, Mike Nizich, approved Monegan's trip to Washington, D.C., "to attend meeting with Senator Murkowski." The date next to Nizich's signature reads June 18. 

Contacted Friday, Monegan confirmed the travel authorization was to pursue funding for the anti-sexual-violence program. He said the travel authorization form was completed in a fashion consistent with practice, even though it showed no expenditures. The signed form approved the travel, he said, and authorized him to use a government credit card or seek reimbursement for expenses he incurred during the trip. 
 
Read the Full Story at ABCNews

Fact Check: Has Obama voted for raising taxes?

The Statement
"He (Obama) has voted for, in the Senate, raising taxes on people that make as low as $42,000 a year, so he's been all over the map on this … ," McCain said in a Monday, Sept. 16, interview on CNN's "American Morning."

The Facts
McCain is referring to a June 5, 2008 vote on a resolution (Senate Concurrent Resolution 70) that was not legally binding, but meant to outline the Senate's budget priorities through 2013. Obama and running mate Sen. Joe Biden voted "yes" on the resolution. McCain did not vote.

According to a CNN review of the resolution, it assumes that most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts pushed by President Bush will expire in that time — unless Congress renews them. In the past, McCain's campaign has said in interviews and television ads that Obama voted to increase taxes on those making $32,000 or more. This is false. If the provisions of the resolution were later made law, it would have increased taxes for people starting at $41,500 a year or couples
making $83,000.

So where did the figure $32,000 come from? Turns out someone making $41,500 would have a taxable income of about $32,000, based on average tax exemptions.

The 48-page resolution also called for several tax cuts and breaks including rolling back the alternative-minimum tax and the so-called "marriage penalty." And the tax plan that Obama has proposed during his campaign would offer tax cuts to most of the people whose taxes would increase if the Bush cuts expire.

Verdict: Misleading

Obama wants to teach sex to kindergarteners? Lie.
Palin opposed the Bridge to Nowhere? Lie.
Palin hasn’t taken earmarks as Governor? Lie.
Alaska produces 20% of America’s energy? Lie.
Palin visited Iraq and Ireland? Lie.

Watch It:

Click For Larger Image

Palin Accuses Obama of Supporting Tax Hikes

The GOP ticket joined back up again at a rally in this battleground state. McCain made quite the entrance when he landed at the airplane hanger where over 3,000 excited supporters were there to greet him and his wife, Cindy.

The governor of Alaska spoke first and blasted Barack Obama insisting that he would raise taxes on Americans:

“He wants to raise income taxes and he wants to raise payroll taxes and raise investment income taxes and raise the death tax and raise business taxes. That’s his plan. He actually proposes to raise taxes in this hurting economy,” Palin said, “Hurting economy that increase in taxes would equate to about billions and billions of dollars on you taken from you and even with all those new taxes still our opponent would need more taxes to pay for the enormous new federal programs that he is proposing.”

Palin continued attacking the Democratic nominee and used her running mate’s signature line. She said she had some “straight talk” for him, “His tax plans really would kill jobs and hurt small businesses and make even today’s bad economy look like the good old days.” Palin said, “to grow our economy and to avoid a recession to bring new jobs to this state or save the jobs you already have we need relief for every taxpayer and for every business in America and we also need serious reform on Wall Street and John McCain is the guy that will get it done.”

Obama has consistently said that he would not raise taxes on anyone who makes less than 250,000 dollars a year. The Democratic nominee has said that he would give credits of 500 dollars to people making less that 150,000 dollars and up to 1,000 dollars per family. But, the Palin-McCain camp insists that because of “expansive spending proposals including five billion dollars just today” that Obama will raise taxes on people in both the higher and lower brackets.

Palin Exaggerates Alaska's Energy Role

Gov. Sarah Palin "knows more about energy than probably anyone in the United States of America."
            - Sen. John McCain, NBC interview, Sept. 10

"My job has been to oversee nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of oil and gas."
            - Gov. Sarah Palin, Golden, Colo., Sept. 15

The woman touted by John McCain as the most knowledgeable person in America on energy issues has been having a lot of trouble getting her basic energy statistics straight. Last week, Sarah Palin told Charles Gibson of ABC News that her state, Alaska, produced "nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy. " On Monday, she told a campaign rally in Golden, Colo., that she had been responsible for overseeing "nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of oil and gas." Both claims are way off.

While Alaska is a leading producer of crude oil, it produces relatively little natural gas, hardly any coal and no nuclear power. Its share of oil production has been declining sharply, and the state now ranks lower than Texas and Louisiana. Alaska is the ninth-largest energy supplier in the United States, accounting for a modest 3.5 percent share of the nation's total energy production.

After nonpartisan Factcheck.org pointed out Palin's error in her interview with Gibson, the governor revised her statement somewhat, limiting it to oil and gas. But data compiled by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) contradict her claim that she oversees "nearly 20 percent" of oil and gas production in the country. According to authoritative EIA data, Alaska accounted for 7.4 percent of total U.S. oil and gas production in 2005.

It is not even correct for Palin to claim that her state is responsible for "nearly 20 percent" of U.S. oil production. Oil production has fallen sharply in Alaska during her governorship. The state's share of total U.S. oil production fell from 18 percent in 2005 to 13 percent this year, according to the EIA.

First their story was John McCain couldn't use technology at all because "As A POW John McCain Was Beaten Beyond Being Able To Use His Hands"

Today they're claiming he helped create the miracle of the Blackberry.

Asked what work John McCain did as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate's top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry.

"He did this," Senior Economic Advisor, Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry.  "Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you're looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that's what he did."

Senior aide Matt McDonald said that Sen. McCain "laughed" when he heard about Holz-Eakin's comment.

"He would not claim to be the inventor of anything, much less the BlackBerry. This was obviously a boneheaded joke by a staffer," McDonald said.

The Obama Campaign quickly commented on the first gaffe of the day by the McCain Campaign:

"If John McCain hadn't said that 'the fundamentals of our economy are strong' on the day of one of our nation's worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

Because she has a special needs child, Mrs. Palin wants us all to believe that she is very friendly to the special needs community.

However, once again the truth seems quite different from her rhetoric:

Though Palin did sign a law increasing special education funding in Alaska, “she had no role whatsoever” in its development, according to the bill’s author, Rep. Mike Hawker (R).

As shown above, as governor, Palin vetoed $275,000 in Special Olympics Alaska funds, slashing the organization’s operating budget in half.

[Source: Page 100 Alaska Budget, SB 221 with vetoes]

The Liar Wire

The new ad, which will air on national cable, is the Obama camp's first hitting McCain for his adver-sleazements, and it slams his campaign as "disgraceful."

Watch It:

The US Naval Academy Honor Concept

The first two lines of the Concept are ...

Midshipmen are persons of integrity: They stand for that which is right.

They tell the truth and ensure that the full truth is known. They do not lie.

Let's say you're the newly elected Governor of Alaska.

Do you:

1. Sell the state's private plane on eBay;
2. Cancel the Bridge to Nowhere;
3. Have a tanning bed installed in the Governor's mansion for your own private use

If your answer was #3, then you're just like Sarah Palin.

Al Giordano and Bill Conroy, take it away:

"The governor did have a tanning bed put in the Governor's Mansion," Roger Wetherell, chief communications officer of Alaska's Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, confirmed to this newspaper. "It was done shortly after she took office [in early 2007] and moved into the mansion."

Would a "fiscal reformer" do this?

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin used a government "per diem" allowance to charge the state for more than 300 nights spent at home (graphic) and spent another $43,490 on travel for her children and husband, 

Many of the trips (graphic) were to ferry her children and husband from their hometown of Wasilla to the state capital of Juneau, which is 600 miles away.

or this?

Last year, Palin requested more earmarks per person than any other state -- including some that were criticized by McCain himself.

Her record on reform of pork barrel spending is not good.

The advertisement "Disrespectful" is the latest in a number from The Palin/Mccain Campaign that resort to a dubious disregard for the facts.  

The nonpartisan political analysis group Factcheck.org has already criticized “Disrespectful” as “particularly egregious,” saying that it “goes down new paths of deception,” and is “peddling false quotes.”  

Even the title is troublesome. “Disrespectful” is one of those words that is loaded with racial and class connotations that many people consider offensive. 

Used in the context of this ad, it's considered a little less racist way of saying "uppity".

A McCain-Palin TV ad accuses Obama of being "disrespectful" of Palin, but it distorts quotes to make the case. 

Summary 

The McCain-Palin campaign has released a new TV ad that distorts quotes from the Obama campaign. It takes words out of context to make it sound as though the Democratic ticket is belittling Palin:

• The ad says "they said she was doing 'what she was told.' " But the Obama adviser who's being quoted didn't accuse Palin of meekly following orders. What he actually said is that she made a false claim about Obama's legislative record and added, "maybe that's what she was told."


• It says "they lashed out at Sarah Palin; dismissed her as 'good looking,' " But "they" didn't lash out at all. Obama – who is the one pictured – didn't say anything like that. The only one the McCain campaign quotes is Obama's running mate, Biden, and he actually offered the remark as a compliment. Biden said the "obvious" difference between Palin and himself is "she's good looking."


• The ad says Obama was "disrespectful" when he accused Palin of "lying" about her record. But the truth is Palin's claim to have "said no" to the "bridge to nowhere" is indeed a dubious one, as we and many have pointed out.

BARBARA WALTERS: "She [Governor Sarah Palin] also took some earmarks..."

JOHN MCCAIN: "No, not as governor she didn't. She vetoed - Look, well, the fact is she's a reform governor."
                                                                    --ABC "The View," Sept. 12, 2008

John McCain is trying to claim that black is white when he argues that his running mate, Sarah Palin, has not accepted earmarks as Governor of Alaska.

Under Governor Palin, Alaska still leads the nation in terms of per capita spending on earmarks, according to Citizens Against Government Waste. 

See Also:

Palin Administration Still Pursuing ‘Nowhere’ Project

The US Naval Academy Honor Concept

The first two lines of the Concept are ...

Midshipmen are persons of integrity: They stand for that which is right.

They tell the truth and ensure that the full truth is known. They do not lie.

Crowd-Size Estimates Provided By Campaign Aides Not Backed By Officials

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Senator John McCain has drawn some of the biggest crowds of his presidential campaign since adding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to his ticket on Aug. 29. Now officials say they can't substantiate the figures McCain's aides are claiming.

McCain aide Kimmie Lipscomb told reporters on Sept. 10 that an outdoor rally in Fairfax City, Virginia, drew 23,000 people, attributing the crowd estimate to a fire marshal.

Fairfax City Fire Marshal Andrew Wilson said his office did not supply that number to the campaign and could not confirm it. Wilson, in an interview, said the fire department does not monitor attendance at outdoor events.

In recent days, journalists attending the rallies have been raising questions about the crowd estimates with the campaign. In a story on Sept. 11 about Palin's attraction for some Virginia women voters, Washington Post reporter Marc Fisher estimated the crowd to be 8,000, not the 23,000 cited by the campaign.

The campaign attributed that estimate, and several that followed, to U.S. Secret Service figures, based on the number of people who passed through magnetometers.

"We didn't provide any numbers to the campaign," said Malcolm Wiley, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service. Wiley said he would not ``confirm or dispute'' the numbers the McCain campaign has given to reporters.

Today alone we learned that the McCain campaign’s claim that Governor Palin traveled to Iraq is a lie. In fact, she didn’t cross the Kuwait border. We learned that the McCain campaign is desperate enough to tell the press phony crowd numbers, which they falsely attributed to local elected officials and the United States Secret Service.  And we learned that despite Senator McCain’s claim that Governor Palin is a fiscal conservative, spending actually increased during her brief tenure as Governor.

Washington Post: Palin Did Not Visit Iraq

WASILLA, Alaska -- Aides to Gov. Sarah Palin are scrambling to explain details of her only trip outside North America -- which, according to a new report, did not include Iraq, as the McCain-Palin campaign had initially claimed.

Palin made an official visit to see Alaskan troops in Kuwait in July of 2007. There, she made a stop at a border crossing with Iraq, but did not actually visit the country, according to a new report in the Boston Globe.

Earlier, McCain aides had said that Palin visited Iraq, and expressed indignation at questions about her slim foreign travel.

The campaign also said she had been to Ireland; that turned out to have been a refueling stop.

In her ABC interview, Palin said she had also been to Canada and to Mexico, where her advisers said she went on vacation.

Obama aides described the new revisions to Palin's account as part of a growing pattern of deception. "The McCain campaign said Governor Palin opposed the Bridge to Nowhere, but now we know she supported it. They said she didn't seek earmarks, but now we know she hired a lobbyist to get millions in pork for her town and her state. They said she visited Iraq, but today we learned that she only stopped at the border. Americans are starting to wonder, is there anything the McCain campaign isn't lying about?".

Again, the righties making up more of their ridiculous excuses for the Palin/McCain campaign.

This time in an attempt to refute the Obama ad "Still".

Watch It:

The Response?

JOHN MCCAIN WAS A PRISONER OF WAR!

He's not totally out of touch!

He was beaten beyond being able to use a computer or email almost 40 years ago!

Jonah Goldberg at The National Review

Does anyone know why McCain doesn’t use a computer or email? As a couple readers suggested to me, it might be because his injuries prevent it. I mean he can’t lift his arms much higher than his chest and it looks like he has all sorts of other mobility problems with them. Maybe he can’t type or use something like a blackberry. I don’t know. But I hope the Obama campaign found out before they played the granpa Simpson card on McCain. I’d hate for Obama to be mocking a veteran’s disability to score cheap points.

Their claim is that McCain is simply unable to use a computer because of his POW injuries, citing a March 2000 article in the Boston Globe that states, with no supporting evidence...

McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.

Of course, this directly contradicts what McCain and his campaign manager have said. McCain told the New York Times in July:

I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don't expect to be a great communicator, I don't expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need.

Oh and here's McCain using a cell phone while holding a Blackberry from July 2007:

 More on this and more pictures at Huffington Post

Saw this and thought Wow now they're throwing McCain Under the Bus in a scrambling attempt to cover for the fact that with THIS SINGLE QUESTION Sarah Palin clearly SHOWS WHY SHE IS NOT QUALIFIED to be Vice President . . . a HEARTBEAT AWAY from the most powerful position in the free world.

As was clearly demonstrated last night on  Bill Maher's Real Time with the bloviating David Frum, the support of Palin/McCain is is making a lot pf people "who are smarter than that" say completely ridiculous things because they have to to keep the people who are apparently to dumb to know better on their side.

First, they went for this:

Not knowing anything about Bush Doctrine (the single Bush Policy that most threatens the world) is OK, because the "average" American Voter wouldn't know what it is either . . . it's just not something your average "Hockey Mom" would be expected to know.

I think that insults "Hockey Moms" everywhere across this great country of ours and the Palin/McCain campaign should issue an immeadiate apology, but that was their answer to their shall we say "uninformed" voter base. 

You don't know the answer either, stupid! So there!

However, the Republican party does have some folks who can actually interpret what they see and hear for themselves. 

They call these folks "the media".  John McCain used to call them "my base".

For these folks they wheeled out the "brilliant Charles Krauthammer to “school” Charlie Gibson on the “Bush Doctrine" 

This is like putting forth Dr, Strangeglove to lecture us on war, but no matter.

The New York Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong.

There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration — and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today. It is utterly different.

So there you go! Sarah Palin was right to not know what the hell "Charlie" was asking her about because "there is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine".

There's one problem with all this though that they didn't really think through.

If Sarah's right doesn't that make McCain wrong to say there is one definable Bush Doctrine and to express what it is?